Clash of tempers and the forming of an irreversible bond
by CherryblossomFire21
Summary: Lilah's life had never been normal or any variation of. She knew about the giant robots hanging around hidden from other people's view. She more then knew how to deal with them. But how will she deal with a pair of twins that proved able to drive her crazy in an astrosecond! Set after the second movie. Sunny/OC/Sides AU Jazz did not die.
1. Chapter 1

So I was thinking about the Allspark and its power and how it had been on earth for so long so I came up with a new story idea. I know! Another one? I randomly had the idea a few days ago so I wanted to see how it would be received! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p><strong>'One day you will see why I value your life over mine.'<strong>

Those words would forever haunt her mind and 'heart' until the day that the gods took mercy on her and ended her existence. When she couldn't say. Time really did have little meaning to someone like her.

The world always seemed to be moving around her. Always forward and never back. And she always seemed to be dragged forward, towards a future that she really wanted no part of. No. She wanted to return to the past. Everything in her ached to change that day. But she couldn't. She knew it. She hated admitting that fact.

But fact was fact. Nothing could be changed and she could not dispute that fact. So she existed day to day. Among the other humans, but not really as one of them.

Maybe that was just what it meant to be Lilah Follis. Her life was certainly never was anything less than interesting.

Five foot five, long thigh length red hair, and rich sage green eyes. Eighteen years old and just graduated from some High school that she couldn't even name. Monotonous. Life was just the same every day no matter what she did. Most people would appreciate the security of that. But not Lilah.

Security was boring. Especially when she knew that no one really was safe. Not like they thought that they were. The passing hums of electrical energy in some of the cars that passed by proved that fact. But then again most humans couldn't sense that. Not like she could. And the giant robotic beings passing her by were always nonethewiser.

Just like she liked to keep it. Unless one of them wanted a go. She was always up for a fight. Especially against an opponent that was going to underestimate her size and 'humanity.' It just made it more fun when she showed them her special talents.

She smirked. Oh how very boring life was. What she wouldn't give for a good fight.

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><p>(Sideswipe's POV)<p>

Patrol. How boring. No con activity. What did he expect after the Fallen had been defeated? Megatron was probably stewing in his little throne room in whatever dank cave he was in. The thought made him almost purr. He would have if it had not been for his brother and the others following after him.

**'I swear! If I don't get to tear a con open in the next decacycle I'm going to go crazy!'** His twin Sunstreaker snapped. **'No in the next joor! Frag decacycle!'**

There was a sigh through the com links from Ratchet. The old medic was probably envisioning all the ways to offline him and his brother without Optimus knowing.** 'Calm down Sunstreaker. Con activity with you two means a lot of work for me afterwards. And I really don't want to waste my time treating you slaggin idiots.'**

**'Oh Hatchet you know that you love us!'** He taunted.

**'Like I love junkion waste.'** Ratchet replied gruffly.

Pouting he turned his attention back to the road ahead. Boring. Patrol was always so primus damn boring! Just give him a con to fight! Or let him prank somebot at the base!

**'Calm down Sides. I want a piece of action too but whining isn't gonna make it magically appear.'** Sunny grumbled.

**'But what if it could? Then you'd be appreciative of all of my whining! Just wait! One day this particular talent of mine is going to help us find something awesome!'** Of that he was certain. Because let's face it he was Sideswipe and awesome and him just went servo in servo.

**'Yeah I'll believe it when I-'** Sunny stopped mid-sentence when a large explosion went off several blocks over.

Every one of them screeched to a halt as Optimus who had remained silent so far drove ahead slightly with Ratchet to get a better feel of the situation ahead. **'It appears to be Barricade and Bonecrusher.'** The red and blue mech was silent for several kliks.

**'And? Let's go kick some aft! We know everything that we need to know!'** Sunny growled and revved his engine eagerly.

**'No. There is something else as well... However my sensors cannot seem to accurately discern what it is. I believe that it may be another bot. The signature seems to fit at least. Let us proceed cautiously.'** With that said the Prime started forward towards the sounds of battle going on.

Bloodlust was already bleeding through the bond from Sunny like Energon from a gaping wound. It fueled his own bloodlust which was always slower to build up than Sunny's. Buildings blurred by in their mad dash to get to the battle going down just opposite of them.

Explosions rocked the ground from plasma cannons. Heavy pede falls created shockwaves, jostling cars and the humans that were running for their lives.

**'Hey Sunny?'** A disgruntled feeling came over the bond. He sent his own feelings of smugness back as they neared the battlefield. **'Told ya so!'** With that he slammed on his breaks and simultaneously shifted to bipedal mode in the same move.

Sunny and the others followed suit and shifted to bipedal mode. However there was something so...humorous about what was going on before them that they all froze.

For there in the middle of a ruined street stood Barricade and Bonecrusher. But that wasn't what tickled his processor. No what made him want to laugh was the fact that they were eyeing a small human female with weariness. Like a small human woman could harm them!

As if sensing his thoughts the red haired woman turned to him with a smug smirk, and very deliberately lifted one of her dainty glove covered hands up in front of her.

The move made Barricade tense, while Bonecrusher the psychotic fragger that he was just bum rushed her.

That snapped each of them out of their stupors. He rushed forward intent on snatching the little human up and getting her to safety. Only to falter when his scanners picked up a large swell of electromagnetic energy originating from said human female.

Electric sparks danced across the surface of her body sending her hair flying around her in a billowing red sea. Something flashed across her bright green eyes before she built her energy up into a large sphere and launched it at Bonecrusher. Time seemed to slow down as he watched with wide optics as the large blue orb slammed into Bonecrusher and just exploded sending the con flying back, and making small parts of him rain down on the concrete below. He kept moving towards the femme meeting her eyes before he hurriedly snatched her up in his servos. Hopefully she wouldn't try and blow him up.

**'Sideswipe get the human back to base. We'll catch up after we deal with Barricade and Bonecrusher.'**

**'Right. See you there Boss.'**

Once he was a fair distance away from the battle he stopped and placed the female onto the ground before shifting down to his alt mode and opening his passenger door for her.

She eyed him warily. "You expect me to go with you? Why would I do that?" Something flashed through her eyes and she looked back in the direction that they had come. "No. I think I want to go back and finish what those slaggers started."

His processor nearly fritzed. Did...did she just use a Cybertronian curse word? Better question! Was she really trying to go back into a battle instead of running away? Everything he had learned about humans was flashing through his processor in the space of an astrosecond. And every bit of it was telling him that this human was either insane, or she was just brave. Maybe stupid. Whatever the case he had his orders. "Please get in so that I can take you somewhere safe."

If possible she gave him a look of disbelief. "Oh really? Well you'll understand if I don't believe that. No you'll understand if I say frag you right? You do understand that don't you?" With a derisive click she turned on her booted feet and stalked back in the direction that they had come.

He immediately shifted to bipedal mode and rolled after her. "Wait a second human-"

"My name is not human!" She spun around and glared at him angrily. "It's Lilah! This is the part where you tell me your name! Or designation if that's how you prefer it to be worded!" She snapped each word like it was poison.

"Sideswipe. My designation is Sideswipe." He murmured.** 'Hey Optimus?'** He commed.

**'Yes Sideswipe? How is the femme? Is she injured at all?'**

**'No. But she's refusing to go with me. In fact she's trying to come back to where you are.'**

**'WHAT?!'** Ratchet and Sunny snarled together. The former probably because it was foolish for a human to walk into a battle between mechs. The latter was probably because she was raining on his parade or whatever. Who could ever tell with Sunny?

**'Yeah hackers! You heard what I just said! She said she's not going! And she even knows our terms and slag!' And hey wait! Where the slag did she go? 'Crap I lost her!'**

**'Fragging idiot what the slag are you doing? How can you lose a human woman?'**

**'Shut up Sunny!'** Oh slag where did she get to!? He peeked around buildings and down alleyways in his search for the small woman that had somehow evaded him. Lifting trash cans and dumpsters for good measure in case she was hiding under them.

His panic only grew when he couldn't find her. And it grew even more when the others rolled up in their alt modes and shifted to bipedal mode. "Where the slag is the organic Sides?!" His twin stomped over to him and whacked him over the helm.

He yelped mid search and turned to glare at his brother while he rubbed his newest dent. "I don't know Sunny! She walked off while I was on the com link!" Something in him was driving him to find her. Sunny seemed to feel it too because the feelings of need were flowing into him from his slightly larger twin.

At that moment a throat cleared causing them all to snap around in its direction. And there standing in the center of the road was the human female that they were looking for. Only this time she had something in her hand. A food item?

"Where the slag did you go? You almost got me killed by Sunny!" He jumped to his pedes and knelt down beside her.

She rolled her eyes and snorted. "Oh really? Well you'll forgive me if I don't know who the hell Sunny is. And you should probably forgive me for not really caring either." At the end of her little rant she tore into her food while she eyed the rest of the bots gathered. Swallowing she started talking again. "Look if this is about dumb shit 1 and dumb shit 2, they attacked me first. Dunno who they are, dunno what they want! What I can tell you is that you took my kills from me!"

Sunny snorted and came up beside him to peer down at the little female with obvious disdain. "Like you could kill one of us human."

Lilah paused mid bite and glared death at his twin before she dropped her food and stalked towards him until she was standing at his left pede. She peered up at him and raised a hand before giving him the right hand salute. "Fuck- oh wait Frag you Sunnyboy! I can take you with my eyes closed! And we can test that right now if you want to!"

If possible Sunny looked...surprised as slag. Both that a human was standing up to him, and that she was threatening him with physical violence. But the surprise gave way and he reached down for the scruff of her shirt lifting her up to his face level. "Try me organic."

"I will you hunk of junk!" And much to all of their surprise she swung right at Sunny's left optic with blue energy surrounding her fist.

Sunny actually stumbled back and dropped her as he clutched at his now bleeding optic.

He scrambled to catch Lilah before she hit the hard ground, sighing in relief when she was safely tucked into his servos. Where she would have to stay because Sunny was glaring death at her. Not that she really seemed to care.

"Cen fath nach bhfuil tu ag teacht ag dom aris tr Bastard!" She yelled at his twin angrily.

A quick search of the internet told him that she was speaking Irish. Huh maybe he needed to download that language too? Wait did she just tell Sunny to come at her again?

"Yeah Ta a sheasann ceart direach ann Pussy!" She yelled again and swung at his glaring brother with more energy swirling madly around her fist.

"Lilah can we talk like normal civilized beings?" Optimus came forward servos held up in a notion of peace.

The little female in his servos just whipped in Optimus direction and started yelling at him. "Yeah wen insint duit do chuid lcky go bhfuil roinnt manners!"

Optimus optics dulled as he processed her words and translated them. After another moment they brightened back up and he turned to Sunstreaker with a stern expression. "Sunstreaker this kind of behavior will not be tolerated! Apologize to Lilah at once!"

Sunny looked at Optimus like he had two heads. "Slag no! She came at me first!"

"Nil me ag iarraidh a chuid apologs anyways!" She started only to sigh and slap herself on the forehead. "I mean I don't want his apologies anyways!" She glared at Sunny and jumped up in his servo. "I wanna take a couple swings at him! That's what I wanna do you giant ostentatious slagstain! I mean shitstain!"

Ratchet chuckled at the dumbfounded look on Sunny's face plates. "I like her Optimus. She can put Sunstreaker in his place, if only because she has a worse attitude than him."

Their red and blue leader sighed and proceeded to ignore them all except for the small human in his servos. "Lilah my name is Optimus Prime. I am the Leader of the Autobots-"

"Yeah I know that already. Bringers of peace! Wanting to protect life and all that good stuff! And you're fighting the Decepticons who want to destroy all life! Yeah I know all of this crap already! My question is what the pit-I mean hell do you want from me now?"

"How the slag do you know our terms? No how do you know so much about us at all?" Sunny grumbled still eyeing the small human angrily. This first meeting would not soon be forgotten by his brother.

Lilah snorted and flipped him off again, ignoring his question and him altogether. "Look I just need to get going soon okay? I'll put my dampener on and run along home. Put me down Sides."

He perked up but did not sit her down. "Sides? I get a nickname and Sunny gets referred to as Slagstain?"

"He pisses me off. You not so much, at least not yet." She gave him a look over her shoulder and pointed at the ground. "Well? Are you going to put me down or what?"

"No." A part of him didn't want to put her down. She was fascinating to him. "You need to answer Optimus's questions." A tickling sensation shot up from his servo when she crawled over to the edge and peered at the ground to judge the distance to it. Sensing her impending jump he quickly wrapped his digits around her preventing her from getting away.

"I changed my mind slagstain 2, I mean shitstain 2! Put me down before I scramble your circuits beyond repair!" She threatened while she squirmed and wriggled under his digits glaring death at him the whole time. Her strange energy source flared again but she didn't actually direct it at him. "I'm only going to say this once Sideswipe!" She snapped his name and barely allowed her energy to ghost over his servo. "Let me go or else!"

It stung quite a bit actually. But that only seemed to interest him more, and not just him but the others as well. Ratchet looked ready to scan her any astrosecond, and Sunny was glaring at her with his fists twitching at his sides. Optimus was just staring at her with a gentle look in his dark blue optics, but it was obvious that he was intrigued as well.

"I'm barely even tapped into it buddy!" Her voice drew his optics back down to her. "Trust me when I say I can and will burn your ser- hand right off!"

"But why would you want to do that sweet spark?" At the nickname she stilled and gave him a weary look, as did his brother. Feelings of anger and warning flowed into him but he ignored them. The little human had caught his interest in a way that not even Bee's human had. "We need to know. If the cons attacked you there had to be a reason for it. You could be in grave danger if we let you leave."

At that point her body's temperature skyrocketed to dangerous levels. "I SAID PUT ME DOWN BEFORE I ZAP YOU INTO DUST!" She roared at the top of her lungs. "GODS WHAT IS IT WITH GIANT ROBOTIC ALIENS AND THINKING THAT THEY CAN MANHANDLE PEOPLE?! FUCK THOSE GUYS AND FUCK YOU GUYS! NOW PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

He looked at Optimus before putting her down when the red and blue mech nodded at him. "Sorry sweet spark. Didn't mean to make you so mad."

All he got in response from her was a scathing look before she turned and stalked off down the road without backwards glance, muttering about giant alien robots and their metal hands that pissed her off.

His optics followed her trek down the road until she hopped on a motorcycle of some sort and revved the engine loudly before zooming off.

"Follow her Sideswipe. Keep her safe until we can figure out a way to get her to communicate with us freely. After Ratchet assesses and repairs the damage to Sunstreaker's optic we will send him after you."

"Roger that Optimus!" He shifted into his red Lamborghini alt mode and shot off down the road after the human femme.

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><p>(Lilah's POV)<p>

She skidded around the corner of her apartment complex on her dark purple Ducati 899 Panigale and slid into her parking spot before turning the engine off and hopping off of the bike. Her boots clicked off of the cement below as she stalked to the door and yanked it open with one last glance at the red Lamborghini that pulled up in a space down the lot. Yeah you couldn't really be inconspicuous with an alt mode like that.

Snorting she walked into her complex and up to the second floor where her apartment was. Sliding the keys in the lock and popping the door open she stalked in and slammed it shut after her before kicking her boots off and plopping down on the couch in front of the TV.

Grabbing her XBOX one controller she turned the system on and waited for Destiny to load up. While she was doing that she thought over the events of today. She had been thinking about how boring her life had been lately, and almost as if someone above had heard her cons attacked her out of nowhere. How they had known about her she would never know. What she did know was that she was probably going to have to move somewhere else soon. Because if they knew she was going to have a never-ending battle on her hands. And as much as she wished that she was invincible, her 'human' body had some limitations. Eventually she would fizzle out if she didn't have time to recover properly.

That thought only served to piss her off. Luckily her game had loaded up so she pulled up her warlock and went to town on some dregs with her shotgun. Every so often her thoughts would drift back to the red bot that she knew was sitting in her parking lot. Why he was there she was sure she knew, not that she wanted to find it in herself to care.

It wasn't like she hated the Autobots. No she could never hate them after... No. She just didn't hate them! It was just that she was never a very social person even when her family was alive. And after they had died, and after 'she' had died she hadn't trusted any other being enough to even try. She never talked to anyone if she could help it. Pit she never left her apartment if she could help it. Well besides when she wanted to get out and cause mayhem for other people. Or when she needed groceries or other essentials or when she had to work.

Other than that she stayed inside away from the outside world and kept to herself. This behavior probably sprouted from her feelings of awkwardness. She had never been normal or any variation thereof. In fact she had always been a freak that no one really wanted to get to know. Only her brothers and sisters had ever given her a chance, and 'her' she had given her a chance. Well it was more like she had given 'her' a chance. She had seen something in those bright blues, a sadness and despair that she could easily relate to. That was why...

Her musing was cut off when someone knocked at her door. She looked over and scowled angrily when she sensed a strong electric signature on the other side. So he followed her up here? What game was he playing at?

She paused her game and got up to answer the door scowling at the tall black haired male standing in her doorway. Oh she knew it was him. Those dark blue eyes gave him away as did his bright smirk. Oh she would know him in any form. "Sideswipe. Did you need something?"

The mech turned man shrugged and grinned at her. "Got bored sitting outside. Can I come in and hang for a bit?"

Some part of her wanted to slam her door shut in his face. Another part of her, the part that she never understood wanted her to stand aside and let him in. For a moment she warred with herself before she finally relented and stepped aside so that his tall form could come in. "Why did you follow me anyways?" Her eyes roved his form. Loose, but not too loose darkwash jeans, a red form fitting t-shirt and black vans. Not bad.

Sideswipe grinned and plopped down onto her couch. "I got ordered to protect you sweetspark." His optics landed on the TV screen and brightened. "Hey I love this game!" His expression turned into one of confusion when he turned back to when she sat down next to him. "I heard that human femmes don't really like to play games though. So you're different?"

"Yeah I guess." She unpaused her game and resumed completing her bounties ever mindful of the mech sitting on her couch beside her. It was almost easy to do so when she was shooting at dregs, vandals, and captains. Social situations always brought out either her quite introverted side, or her loud and perpetually angry side. It seemed that she had already fallen into a seemingly endless silence. At least he seemed to be ok with it.

"So why the warlock?" His optics watched her player bounce around the screen with interest; they tilted in her direction at his question.

"Because I like the warlock." And also because it kind of reminded her of the messed up things that she could do. Their powers weren't the same, but they were somewhat similar. She could shoot balls of energy from her hands that destroyed her targets.

"Hmm."

Her eyebrow twitched. Was he trying to annoy her? And better yet what had she been thinking when she let a giant alien robot into her apartment? One that she had met maybe an hour ago? "Yeah. What class do you play? Titan?"

"Yup. So far anyways. I plan on making a class for each of them though." Was she really making conversation with a giant alien robot? One whom she was sharing her couch with? She twitched again and subconsciously scooted a little further down the couch from him.

"Nervous?"

"I don't...do well around others." Her fingers rapidly pushed buttons as she dodged hordes of stealth vandals and simultaneously pumped them full of bullets with her pulse rifle.

"I can tell. You almost look like Sunny does when he's forced to share space with someone he doesn't like." An odd look passed through his dark blue optics. It melted away almost instantly as he smiled brightly at her again.

"Don't think that you know what I feel for others." Ahh slag did she just say that?! Now he was going to think that she liked him!

His optics brightened exponentially in a way that human eyes didn't. "Oh? Does that mean that you do like me? You did call me Sides instead of Sideswipe earlier today when you got into it with Sunny."

"It means that I don't know you enough to have an opinion of you." She muttered. It was true as much as she hated to admit it. She never had been the type to judge at first glance even in the case of giant robot aliens. It wasn't like he would even be around long enough for her to really form an opinion on him anyways. As soon as they realized that she could care for herself they would go away and do their own things. At least she hoped that they did.

"Aww that hurts sweetspark! And here I was actually thinking that we were friends." Sides exclaimed dramatically.

"I don't have friends."

He sobered at that and leaned just a little bit closer to her. "Why?"

"Because I'm a freak." The first step to changing was to accept that you had a problem. At least that was what she told herself. Not that she had ever changed. It was almost like she just couldn't do it. Before he could comment on her remark she logged out of her character and handed the controller to him. "You can play if you want to. I need to go and get some sleep. Just don't break anything okay?"

"Ok. See you in the morning Lilah."

She could feel him watching her as she left to go to her bedroom. Not that she cared enough to look back at him. Because she didn't. And no she wasn't scared to sleep with a giant alien robot in her apartment. She had done worse things and been in worse places.

As she closed the door behind her and slipped out of her clothes and into her pajamas she thought back to that day. To those bright blues staring down at her coldly. That was all she thought of as she slipped into her small bed and pulled the covers up to her nose. How she missed 'her'.

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><p>R&amp;R What did you think? As for the language it was Irish. Here are the translations. fath nach bhfuil tu ag teacht ag dom aris tr Bastard- Why don't you come at me again you bastard!<p>

Yeah Ta a sheasann ceart direach ann Pussy- Yeah that's right just stand there pussy! Yeah wen insint duit do chuid lcky go bhfuil roinnt manners- Yeah when he learns some manners!

Nil me ag iarraidh a chuid apologs anyways- I don't want his apologies anyways!


	2. Chapter 2

So I'm working on a couple different things right now so bare with me while I get a good drive going here ok? I want to put out another chapter for this story first! I'll probably update my other Sunny/OC/Side story in the next few days as well! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>From the very first time that we met, I knew nothing but suffering from her eyes. Eyes that could endure no more. That screamed for an end to the anguish and pain. Eyes...like mine.<p>

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><p>With a start she came screaming out of the nightmare that she had been locked in. Her eyes shot wildly around the room as her body shuddered violently with fear making her feel like she might throw up any second. She bit her lip and closed her eyes so that she could at least attempt to calm herself, if only a little bit.<p>

Why? Why was it always that nightmare every night? Why must her mind always conjure images of her to torment her like that? She could feel the cold sweat sliding down her face over her flushed cheeks, a normal occurrence for her night terrors.

What was not a normal occurrence for her night terrors was her door roughly being kicked apart.

She started and watched wide eyed as her door was literally shattered into pieces. What the slag? And then her survival instincts kicked in and she was flipping up and over the bed and landing in a crouch next to her dresser. One of her hands sparked with destructive energy and she brought it up beside her keeping it steady on the door.

A tall male with messy black hair nearly sprinted into her room, deep blue eyes shooting around wildly until they landed on her crouched down opposite of him. "Lilah?" When he took in her energy swirling around her hand he stepped back slightly and raised his hands in the air defensively. "Hey calm down it's just me Sideswipe."

Sideswipe? For a moment her fear induced mind couldn't recall who that was. Until her eyes drifted up to his dark blue ones. Then she remembered. Being attacked by the cons, fighting them, meeting him and the rest of the Autobots. And then she realized that she could have easily caused serious damage to him by attacking him like this. So she lowered her hand and slowly got up out of her crouch. "Why did you knock my door down?" Was all that she could think to ask since her mind was pretty much blank save for the nightmare still racing through it.

Sideswipe looked back at her door sheepishly. "Well you screamed pretty loud so I thought that maybe Frenzy or Scalpel had managed to get in here or something. So I knocked the door down to get to you." He explained while scratching at the back of his neck.

"Oh." Eyes roved over the damage once more while a scowl pulled at her lips. "You owe me a new door."

If possible he looked even more sheepish. "Uh yeah I'll take care of it."

Ignoring him she looked at her clock instead and noticed that it was after five in the morning. Normally she got up around six but after another nightmare like that there was no way that she was laying back down to sleep. She bit her lip and looked discreetly at the mech turned man sharing her space. What the slag was she supposed to do with him?

She knew why he was here sparksitting her. It was so that they didn't lose her seeing as how they had so much that they needed her to explain. All for knowledge. Never that anyone really cared for her as a person. So if she told them what they needed to know would they go and leave her alone?

No. Probably not. In fact they would probably kidnap her themselves. Which she did not need. So that just cemented in the fact that she wasn't going to say slag to any of them. Eventually she would be able to give them the slip. It was all a matter of getting her timing right. But for now she had a curious alien robot in human skin watching her expectantly. "Let's go out to the living room."

His eyes er...optics flashed and he grinned at her before stepping aside and bowing at the waist. "Ladies first sweetspark."

Weirdo. She stalked past him and carefully navigated around the broken shards of wood that littered her door way, before walking down the hall to the kitchen. Every step she could feel his energy buzzing right behind her. What was he like a lost puppy or something? She would've asked him if he hadn't broken off at the entrance to the kitchen so that he could return to the living room.

"So why were you screaming sweetspark?"

She paused in setting up her coffee pot to turn her head and stare at her couch which he was draped halfway over the back of. "Nightmare." She scooped her coffee into the filter and switched the pot on. Once that was going she turned and made herself a bowl of apple jacks cereal.

"Ah. Sometimes I have nightmares in my recharge as well."

With her back to him she could still feel the waves of understanding wafting over to her like a physical touch. Strange. But not really seeing as he was what he was, and she was what she was. She had always been more in tune with 'their' emotions on a much more personal level. Well when she was actually paying attention. Or when she was just clear headed enough to really interpret it. "Oh? About the war right?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth she nearly smacked herself on the forehead for being so stupid. Stupid fragging idiot! Haven't you done enough to get their interest in the last twelve hours?

And now she could feel his curiosity and...confusion? No anger or irritation? "I'd ask how you even know about that but I don't think you'd tell me."

"No I wouldn't." She agreed before she fixed her coffee with the right amount of creamer and an unhealthy amount of sugar before taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch from him. "It isn't really your business."

As soon as she said that she sensed another of their presences entering the parking lot of her complex. For a moment she stiffened and shot over to the window to peek out of it. A golden Lamborghini pulled up next to Sideswipe's red Lamborghini alt mode. "Oh great Sunnyboy's here too." As soon as she said that his holoform popped out of his alt mode and started towards her building. She couldn't help but to notice the differences in the two holoform modes. Sunstreaker's was a blonde haired male, golden haired actually. And his hair was neat whereas Sideswipe's was messy and falling into his eyes...er optics. Sunstreaker's was even a little bit bigger and slightly buffer than Sideswipe's form as well. The holoform was wearing a loose red t shirt, and light wash jeans with gold vans. His eyes...optics met hers with a glare when he opened the door to her building and walked in.

Scowling she backed away from her window and turned around to face Sideswipe's smiling form. "I'm not letting him in."

Sideswipe laughed at her before vaulting over the back of the couch and approaching her door. "I would if I were you because Sunny might just take the door down to get in." His hand found the knob unlocking and then opening the door. "Hey Sunny!" Sideswipe greeted his scowling twin before ushering him inside and closing the door again.

"Organic." Sunstreaker glared at her.

"Giant prick robot." She nodded at him before she sat down and spooned her now soggy cereal into her mouth. Sideswipe flipped over the back of her couch and grabbed her XBOX controller so that he could start playing Destiny again. Even though she didn't want to she pulled away from him slightly, discreetly. Well at least she thought it was.

"What organic? Don't like our kind?"

Her head whipped around towards the back of her couch where Sunstreaker was sneering at her. She glared right back and flipped him off. "Not that it's any of your business Sunshine." He scowled at her nickname. "But I don't particularly like anyone. It's not a matter of preference as in species or anything of the like, I'm just antisocial."

Luckily Sideswipe came to her rescue before things could get even more heated. "Leave her alone Sunny. Lilah likes us just fine she's just half introverted and half-crazy raging psychotic glitch. Right sweet spark?"

A trickle of amusement made her lips pull up in a tiny smile. "Yeah." When he looked at her and grinned she turned away and scowled over the rim of her coffee mug. Bastards. Both of them were bastards. "So why did you come here anyways Sunflower?"

There was a grunt from Sunstreaker, Sideswipe only snickered and paused his game to turn to her. "Sunny was worried about me. Isn't that right Sunflower?"

"No." Sunstreaker deadpanned, a glare heavily trained on his twin's smug looking face.

If possible Sideswipe's grin widened even more. "Oh that's right! He was hoping that maybe you might wanna wash and polish him. Isn't that right Sunny?"

"No. I would never let a squishy touch me."

Her eyebrow twitched. Did he just refer to her as a squishy? "Did...did you just call me a fragging squishy?" She asked in a deadly soft tone. When she turned around Sunstreaker was glaring at her and Sideswipe was looking back and forth between the two of them wearily.

"So what if I did? What are you gonna do about it? Cry?" The golden haired holoform taunted her with a smug smirk on his lips.

Her arm twitched with the incredible desire to hit him. And she normally would have if she wasn't so scared to damage her walls or something. Instead she jumped up out of her seat and got right up in the holoform's face allowing her power to flow over her threateningly. "No I'm not gonna cry Sunflower!" She spat his name and took a dangerous step towards him, smugness shooting through her when he took a weary step back. "But if you can't be nice then you can show yourself out. And if you won't just do it yourself..." She raised her hand and coated her palm in glowing blue energy before she gently tapped his holoform disabling it much to their shock.

It faded away as the nano particles raced under the door and back to Sunstreaker's alt mode.

"Prick!" Sighing and walking back over to the couch she grabbed her bowl and took it to the sink to dump it. Oh she couldn't wait for Sunnyboy to come racing back up to her door so that they could have it out again. And again. And again. And again if he didn't learn his lesson any of those times. Slagger.

There was banging at her door while she was washing her dishes. "Leave it until I open it." She told Sideswipe absently when she saw him moving towards the door again from the corner of her eye. When he hesitantly complied she placed her dishes on the wash rack and went to take her shower and dress herself.

She did her morning activities quickly paying no attention to anything other, then the furious banging on her front door. After dressing herself in a black long sleeved shirt, black skin tight jeans, and a pair of black gloves she finally exited the bathroom and made her way to the front door.

Meeting Sideswipe's amused optics she twisted the handle and yanked the door open, causing Sunstreaker to fall face first into her entryway floor. This caused Sideswipe to snicker at his brother, and Sunstreaker just glared at her like he wanted to kill her. Well he probably did, not that she really cared.

She plastered on a shocked expression and lifted a hand to her mouth for emphasis. "Oopsie! An raibh a ghortu?"

"Glitch." Sunstreaker muttered darkly as he pulled himself off of the floor and dusted himself off. He quickly plopped down on the side of his brother opposite of where she would be sitting so that Sideswipe was acting as a wall between them.

She glared at the blonde idiots head and slammed her door shut. They still hadn't told her what the hell they wanted! "Why are you two invading my life anyways?"

Sideswipe paused his game to look at her in surprise. "We're protecting you sweetspark. Didn't I tell you that last night?"

"You did." But she hadn't really given it much thought at the time. She had figured that by being difficult enough they would get a hint and shove off. But no! Sideswipe wasn't even really phased by her attitude and almost hostile behavior in the least. And Sunstreaker must have co invented hostility with Unicron himself because he might even surpass her behavior and that was saying something. Whatever the means she still wasn't scared of the big golden afthole. That didn't mean that she wasn't irritated with his, and to a lesser extent his brother's presence. "Why?"

Sides sat the controller down on her table and turned so that he was propped up on the back of her couch. He pursed his lips thoughtfully before answering her. "Because the cons are after you. This fight is ours not yours, so you shouldn't have to face them alone."

"They're attacking this planet Sideswipe, our planet. That makes it the humans fight too." She pointed out softly. His worry confused her; it was so strong as it wafted into her body. Sometimes she hated being a robotic empath...especially since she could feel Sunstreaker's disdain and irritation for her as clearly as she was feeling her own irritation for him. She never had to guess what they were really feeling for her, she could feel it. That confused her because Sideswipe didn't only feel worry for her, but he felt a sort of affection for her. Like one would to a friend maybe? She couldn't really tell because she hadn't really felt anything like that before. But she did know that he actually liked her unlike his brother. "I don't need a babysitter. You don't have to stay here. I know that you don't want to anyways. So you can go ahead and go back because I'll be fine." Yeah she would be fine. She forcefully cut off her empathic abilities so that their feelings couldn't reach her anymore. Part of her wondered why she had done that. Another part of her knew that it was because she didn't want to feel their relief when they left her.

**'One day you will see why I value your life over mine.'**

Those words echoed in her head again. How long had it been since 'she' had said them to her? And here she was still as alone as she was after 'she' had died. No her life should never have been valued over anyone else's. She was a freak. An abomination. Something that never should have been born or allowed to live. Some part of her...deep down wanted to be something else. Something important to someone. But that would never happen. Making friends meant that you had to let them in and she couldn't do that. So it was for the best that she sent them away.

She didn't see the worried look that Sideswipe sent his brother, or the irritated yet slightly worried look that Sunstreaker sent back. If she had she would've probably fainted. As it stood right now she just needed to get out so she grabbed her keys and yanked the door open. "When I get back...you better be gone." With that she was out the door and racing down the stairs and out the door to where her bike was parked. She hopped onto it and shoved her helmet on before sliding the key into the ignition and starting it with a loud roaring purr. Backing out and spinning around with a rev of her engine she shot off out of the parking lot and passed the twin Lamborghini's near the exit.

* * *

><p>(Sunstreaker's POV)<p>

Little did she know Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had no intentions of letting her slip away. Both released their holoforms and took off after her in their alt modes. He could feel a trickle of worry and fear coming from his brother. His twin was always one to get attached fast, always had been. But getting attached to a human femme? That was just stupid.

**'It isn't stupid.'**

**'Yes it is. Humans don't live nearly as long as us. If you and her become friends-'**

**'We are friends.'** His twin muttered defensively as they chased after the femme weaving in and out of traffic a good distance ahead of them.

**'Ok then if you get too attached to your new friend'** He spat the word out like it was poisonous.** 'then you're going to end up getting hurt when she dies in less than a vorn.'**

Sides was silent for a moment. **'But she isn't a normal human Sunny. Surely you can feel her energy signature?'**

**'And?'** His sensors worked on keeping track of the little squishy's movements while he conversed with his twin. At this rate he was worried, and he said that lightly, that she might crash into something.

**'What if she won't die as soon as a human does?'**

**'But she will! You can't allow yourself to get attached Sides. Just ignore the little fragged up voice in your processor that says to care about her personally. She's just a job right? A duty. Nothing more.'** Primus what was it with his twin and being overly friendly and outgoing? The slagger could not talk to someone and not make friends with them.

**'Maybe for you that's all anyone is... But I like being around others. And I like her for some reason. So I'm just going to ignore your glitching and do what I want.'**

He roared his engine angrily at his twin startling some organics walking down the sidewalks on either side of the road. Like he cared about what the damn squishies were feeling or thinking. All he cared about was the fact that his brother was being an aft about the femme a ways ahead of them. He just didn't get Sideswipe and the other's interest in the squishies. To him they were oily and some smelled horrible. They were stupid compared to Cybertronians, and had a tendency to destroy themselves with their behavior. That was why he didn't even think for a second about becoming attached to the femme on the bike. Well he wouldn't let himself...

**'You sound sure of yourself bro.'** Sideswipe teased as they rolled up to a stoplight and idled.

**'Shut up fragger.'** He grunted. Never in a million joors was he ever going to admit that he didn't 'hate' the squishy despite her embarrassing him and damaging his optic. That didn't mean that he was enamored with her like Sideswipe seemed to be, it just meant that he might not kill her if she pissed him off again.

The human femme took off down the road as soon as the light turned green while they were stuck behind traffic. He was cursing the human vehicles in every way imaginable when his sensors went off.

**'Barricade!'** Sideswipe exclaimed before reversing between two cars and shooting around and down the road.

At his twin's sharp exclamation and subsequent escape act, he too reversed and forced his way between two cars before taking off after his twin down the road. Damn squishy made him get his paint scratched...he may just have to kill her for that when they offlined Barricade.

He could see Sideswipe move up alongside Barricade cutting the sleek police cruiser alt mode off and placing himself between the con and the squishy who by now was more than aware of the con following her. She veered off through an alleyway suddenly not giving Sideswipe enough of a warning to swerve in after her.

Barricade was further back however, and he was able to slip into the alleyway while Sideswipe had to spin around completely. By that point he shot into the tight space and tore down it with his twin hot on his aft pipe.

They screeched around a corner of a building onto a road that led out of the city. What the slag was the squishy thinking leading Barricade to a deserted place? Both her and Barricade were a fair distance away when the con sped up and slammed into the back of her bike sending her flying through the air.

His spark skipped a beat as her small human body slammed into the concrete with a resounding smack. Her bike went flying over her head and crashed into a light pole shattering it nearly down to the frame. But all he could look at was her body laying on the concrete bleeding and broken. He and Sideswipe sped up as Barricade shifted to bipedal mode and moved to grab the squishy off of the ground.

Slamming on his brakes and simultaneously shifting to bipedal mode he tackled Barricade from behind sending the con flying over the squi...Lilah's body. They both hit the ground and rolled as he drew his servo back and slammed it repeatedly into Barricade's face while the con attempted to slam his clawed servo into his chassis. Only quick reflexes saved him from being impaled as he rolled off of Barricade and placed himself defensively in front of his brother and their charge. He drew his swords and sneered at the pathetic excuse for scrap metal in front of him. "Well are you going to stand there? Or are we going to rip each other apart?

Barricade sneered right back and charged him, servos raised and claws extended to gouge his optics out. "Give me the organic!"

He stepped back before he could lose his optic and ducked down to slam the hilt of his sword into Barricade's chassis. "I don't think so." He brought up the hilt of his other sword and slammed it into the side of Barricade's helm sending him skidding back out of his reach. He snarled and went to launch himself back at his enemy when Bonecrusher came out of nowhere and tackled him from the side.

They crashed into an abandoned building and grappled with one another as he tried to dislodge his attacker from him. Slag it to the pits! Out of the corner of his optics he saw his twin intercept Barricade when the con made a move towards his charge. As much as he hated to admit it they were going to need back up.

**'Come in Optimus.'** While he was waiting he tossed Bonecrusher off of him and shot up off of the ground in hot pursuit.

**'Report.'**

He grunted and slashed at Bonecrusher with his swords before following up with an uppercut that connected with the underside of Bonecrusher's chin and snapped his helm back. **'Barricade came after the squishy. She's hurt bad bring Ratchet.'**

**'Roger that Sunstreaker. ETA five minutes.'** With that the com shut off.

Bonecrusher came at him again and he dodged to the side to get out of the bigger mech's way and brought his sword up to block the claw attachment that shot towards his helm. He swung out and caught a servo aimed for his chassis with the hilt of his blade and threw the large mech to the side before following after him and pinning him with his legs, and his claw with one of his swords. He repeatedly slammed his servo into Bonecrusher's face plates before he was thrown to the side again when the con threw his body up into the air.

"I hate you fragging autoscums!" Bonecrusher hissed before throwing himself at him again.

A blur of black shot out from between the buildings as Ironhide slammed himself into Bonecrusher's side.

He scowled at the big black mech and went to assist him. But before either of them could attack Bonecrusher again he shifted to from bipedal mode to alt mode and tore off in reverse down the road before spinning around and making his escape. "Coward."

Subspacing his weapons he raced back to the spot where his brother was kneeling on the ground beside Ratchet with the other Autobots gathered around watching. He hated that he was actually worried about the squishy...er Lilah. But it wasn't like he didn't have a good reason to. Before he could think on it too hard he looked down at her blood and froze.

It was purple with bright streams of blue mixed in. The slag? Was...were those traces of energon? "Sides? Did you spill any of Barricade's Energon?" Surely that was what this was. Humans couldn't even touch Energon let alone have it in their blood.

Sides looked up in confusion. "Not over here." He pointed down the road a ways where there were several sprays of Energon splattering nearby buildings.

"So what the hell is that?" He pointed down at her blood which had apparently been overlooked in their haste to get to her.

Several vents hitched, Ratchet's, Optimus's, Ironhide's, even his brother's. "But that can't be possible!" Ratchet exclaimed while his holoform continued to work on the unconscious squishy...er Lilah.

"Get...go..damn...sers...offa...me."

Everybot started and looked down at the now conscious femme. And she was glaring at Ratchet's holoform and trying to sit up.

"Lay down!" Ratchet scolded, his bipedal form using a gentle servo to push her back. "Several of your ribs are broken along with your left arm and right ankle. I also need to do a scan of your internals to see if anything was ruptured. But to do that I need you to stay still."

If possible she squirmed more and started yelling at him. "Liar! Ba mhaith leat ach a ghearradh dom a oscailt mar a rinne siad! Lig dom a theann tu Bastard! Nil me ag dul a bheith ar do turgnamh eolaiochta!"

"What the slag did she just say?" Ironhide rumbled.

His twin's optics dimmed as he looked up a translation to what she said, and when he did he gritted his mouth plates. "She said that he's a liar, that he just wants to cut her open like they did. She told him that she wasn't going to be his science experiment and she demanded that he let her go." Mouth plates still gritted in anger his twin leaned over so that the still struggling femme could see him. "Ni bheidh Ratchet Gortaitear tu. Geallaim duit banphrionsa. Cuir in iul do claonadh chun do wounds."

Her wide green eyes shot over to his twin with fear deeply seeded in their depths. "Sideswipe? Cad ata a dheanamh aige dom? Ta se ag dul a ghearradh dom a oscailt cosuil le ainmhi. Ni le do thoil na lig do a ghortu dom."

"What did she say this time?" This time it was Optimus that asked as he knelt down beside Ratchet and looked over the small human femme with worry. Probably seeing as how she was still thrashing and pushing at Ratchet's servos despite her injuries. She shouldn't even be able to move still.

"She asked what he was doing to her. Then she said that he was going to cut her open like an animal, and she begged me not to let him hurt her."

Optimus's optics dimmed for a moment before he started speaking to her in what was apparently her native tongue. "Ni bheidh se 'Gortaitear tu Lilah. Geallaim duit go bhfuil s 'ach ag iarraidh chun cabhru leat. Le do thoil calma sios roimh do dheanamh do wounds nios measa."

Lilah stilled for a moment before slumping down in what appeared to be defeat while she let Ratchet tend to her without a fuss. Her eyes were trained on his twin's, but every once in a while they would wander to one of the other bots wearily, or even to him every once in a while.

"I need to sedate her so that I can take her back to the med bay. I've done all that I can here to stabilize her, but I'm sensing several severely bruised organs that need to be tended to." The gruff medic looked to Sideswipe since she seemed to only trust him, if only grudgingly.

His brother nodded and started speaking to her gently again. "Ni mor duinn a bhogann tu ionas gur feidir le Ratchet claonadh chun do injuies. An feidir linn a sedate leat?"

Her body tensed again and she shook her head no. "Lion Na chuir me a chodladh. Beidh se rudai a dheanamh dona dom agus me codlata."

"She doesn't want a sedative Ratchet. She says that you'll do bad things to her while she sleeps."

Ratchet sighed and retrieved a sedative from his subspace anyways causing the small femme to look up at him sharply. "I won't hurt you. This will only make the pain go away for a while."

Something flashed through her eyes. Fear. She was eyeing the needle with something akin to terror. What the slag had happened to this femme to make her like this? Spewing slag about being cut open and slag. He used his processor to look up her language and downloaded it when he found it. "Io e mio fratello non lascera nulla accada a voi. Rilassatevi e lasciate Ratchet fare quello che deve o sqishy."

Her head snapped over to him wide eyed. Something he said must have clicked in her fear clouded mind because she slowly relaxed and stilled so that Ratchet could sedate her. They could all tell that she was scared and it actually made him feel...sorrow and...anger? He didn't question it seeing as how it could be Sideswipe's emotions coming through the bond.

Soon her eyes glazed over before slowly sliding shut. She tried to fight it by tossing her head and squirming, but eventually she succumbed to it and went limp.

Sides gently picked her up and carried her like she was a piece of glass that could easily be broken. He didn't know how he felt about the way his twin was acting. Getting attached to a squishy...er Lilah. He just hoped that Sides didn't end up getting hurt because of it.

* * *

><p>(Sideswipe's POV)<p>

Ratchet had said that besides the injuries that he had already stated, she had several internal organs that had been severely bruised meaning that she was going to be in a lot of pain for some time to come. But at least she was alive. Bruised and bloody but very much alive.

He couldn't help but to remember her strange blood. Ratchet had taken a sample of her blood for testing but so far no results had come back yet. Still it seemed that this femme was more then what she appeared to be. Whatever the case she still wasn't made of metal, and that meant that she was still vulnerable to attacks. Why the cons wanted her they were still uncertain of. But whatever the case she was going to need to be designated a full time guardian, or two...

Using his holoform to sit in a chair next to her bed with his arms folded underneath his chin, he couldn't help but to stare at her. Something about her made him want to protect her. But why? And why didn't he want to fight it? He had always been a friendly and mischievous bot, but never had he felt such an intense need to protect anyone other than his brother. No matter how much he tried to rationalize it, he couldn't.

The door to the med bay slid open when Ratchet walked in flanked by Optimus, Ironhide, and Sunny. But he never looked fully away from her body lying on the hospital bed.

Ratchet stalked passed him and put what appeared to be an x-ray scan on a projector. This caught his attention since the gruff medic had deemed to have Optimus himself there to look at it. He too stared at the screen when Ratchet switched the light on. What he saw was unlike any human x-ray that he had ever seen before, on the internet, or when he purposely messed up Ratchet's work space.

It showed a pulse of energy located where her heart should be. "Is...is that...a spark?!" He stuttered out while his optics flashed down to Lilah's sleeping face. How could an organic being have a spark?!

"It appears to be. But take a look at this." Ratchet pulled over a monitor and flipped it on showing a scan of Lilah's circulatory systems. "Look at her 'veins'." Ratchet gestured to the screen.

He left Lilah's side and returned to his alt mode so that he could shift into bi pedal mode to get a better look at the screen. Her veins were denser than a normal human's veins and appeared to be showing as a blue purple color.

"I can't conclusively say anything yet." Ratchet started quietly before he turned and looked at where Lilah was laying. "But I believe that we may be seeing a mixed breed human/Cybertronian."

He literally felt Sunny's jaw snap off of its hinges and hit the floor as his own did the same. "What the slag? How can there be a human Cybertronian hybrid? How would one even come into existence?"

"I don't know. But I would bet that our femme over there might have a clue." Ratchet walked past them and snapped a new bag onto her IV drip. "If she is what I think she is, then you can bet one of our kind had a hand in this. Human technology isn't nearly advanced enough for that, but our technology is."

Every set of optics shot over to the small, not so squishy femme lying asleep on her hospital bed. The only thing that was going through his processor was... "How the frag did somebot create a hybrid?" Until she woke up no one would have any answers.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! I'm really nervous about posting this because it's such a strange concept so please let me know what you all think so far! Here are the translations that I forgot to put up! Rough translations anyways!<p>

Ni bheidh se 'Gortaitear tu Lilah. Geallaim duit go bhfuil s 'ach ag iarraidh chun cabhru leat. Le do thoil calma sios roimh do dheanamh do wounds nios measa.- He will not hurt you Lilah. I promise that he's just trying to help. Please calm down before you make your wounds worse.

Ní mór dúinn a bhogann tú ionas gur féidir le Ratchet claonadh chun do injuies. An féidir linn a sedate leat-We need to move you so that Ratchet can tend to your injuries. Can we sedate you?

Io e mio fratello non lascerà nulla accada a voi. Rilassatevi e lasciate atchet fare quello che deve o sqishy.-My brother and I will not let anything happen to you. Relax and let Ratchet do what he needs to do squishy.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Fighting feelings and a new duty

Alright so I want to get the explanations out of the way ASAP so here's the third chapter for you. Logistics for this kind of thing is hard as slag to think through so hopefully it works out, and you guys can understand my muddled and crazy thoughts. I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS

* * *

><p>A large light blue servo was held out for her attached to a tall slender figure. Bright blue optics locked with her rich green. "Are you alright? Come on."<p>

She scrambled up and moved towards the servo offered to her, only to freeze when she saw a blade coming at her helm from behind. Her mouth fell open in a shrill scream. "Moondancer!"

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Those familiar blue optics widened and her light blue helm shot to the side in surprise. But it was too late. The sword cut through her neck joints with a sharp twang lopping her helm right off.

She watched the only mother she knew beheaded. There was nothing that she could do as her body fell to the floor lifelessly. Her mouth fell open as her helm landed right in front of her. She screamed. "MOMMY!"

* * *

><p>Her eyes snapped open and wildly shot around the room. Her ears were ringing and someone's servos were on her trying to calm her down. But it didn't. Being touched never calmed her down. All she could see was that day over and over again in her mind. All she could see staring down at her were those glowing red optics.<p>

A second servo was placed on her and another voice started trying to talk her down. She turned her head and met Sideswipe's optics. "Calm down sweetspark! You're safe in the med bay! Calm down."

The ringing in her ears gradually calmed down some until she could finally hear exactly what he was saying. Her tense body slumped down a little bit as the adrenaline faded leaving her feeling sore and tired. For a moment she couldn't remember what had happened to her, and then she remembered the con knocking her off of her bike. Aww slag! Her bike was totally ruined!

"Are you okay? You were screaming pretty loud."

"I'm ok Sideswipe. Just a nightmare." She forced her voice to come out sounding strong which was the exact opposite of how she felt on the inside. Her whole goddamn life had been a nightmare. At that moment she shoved those thoughts away and turned towards the other mech in the room. Ratchet if she remembered correctly. "What are you doing to me?"

Ratchet paused in changing her IV drip but only for a second. "I'm treating your injuries. You were injured quite badly in your crash." He answered her gruffly.

Movement behind Ratchet drew her attention to the large red and blue mech, as well as a large black mech. Her body tensed subconsciously in case they tried anything. She even tapped into her power source and made sure that it was functioning properly just in case.

A sharp blaring in her ears made her jump and look over to a small monitor beside her bed. It was flashing red and blaring loudly. Had...had they attached her to a monitor to keep track of whether she was using her power or not? It looked almost like a heart monitor only she couldn't say that any human technology had Cybertronian symbols and markings. Either way it spiked when she called her power up and blared in warning. She scowled and slowly allowed her energy to fizzle out. "Care to explain that? I thought I wasn't your science experiment?" She turned angry eyes onto the medic who had promised not to hurt her. Obviously they wanted to have a fair warning in case she tried to defend herself. Probably so that they could experiment on her more safely until they learned to subdue her all the way.

"Ratchet wasn't sure what that...power of yours would do so he hooked you up to that monitor to make sure that your power wouldn't fry his servos or something," Sideswipe explained quietly.

Her attention was drawn to him again. The way he paused when he said power made her mind start racing. This was all her fault for letting him into her apartment in the first place! If she had just listened to the smart part of herself this never would have happened! How much did they know now? Were they expecting a detailed explanation? She hated to burst their bubbles but she really wasn't as informed as some people or bots would be.

"Speaking of power," Ratchet started with optics trained intensely on her small body. "How is it that a human could have a spark and circuitry?"

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Fraggit to the very pits of...well pit. She didn't fail to notice that every mech in the room slid closer to her to hear her explanation. Too bad she wasn't going to give one. "I don't have to tell you anything. I'm not obligated to. And if I did you'd probably want to turn me into your little experiment."

Ratchet and the black mech scowled slightly, while the red and blue mech took a hesitant step towards her bed and kneeled down so that he was eye level with her. "I swear to Primus himself that we will not do anything that you do not approve of. We will not harm you or cause you distress."

"Why should I believe you? Who the pit are you to me?" Not even for one second was she stupid enough to believe that he would not hurt her. Everyone always hurt her and they were no different. The images of those days tried to take over her mind again with their dark malice, attempting to instill fear and agony. But she steeled her mind and pushed them aside like she always did.

"I am Optimus Prime. I believe I introduced myself before Lilah." Optimus smiled at her gently. "And I give you my word as leader of the Autobots that no one here will harm you."

In his words she was hearing something completely different. Tell me because you really have no choice but to obey me. She was not disillusioned to think that she would be getting out of here for at least a few days when her body recovered thanks to her speed healing. Some part of her was telling her that trusting others was ok, that not everyone would hurt her and that they could be trusted. But the part of her that always kept herself alive no matter what told her that she should escape as soon as she could. And until she told them what she knew they were going to be all over her every astrosecond of the day.

"I don't know exactly how it started... But for almost a millennia there have been Decepticons who have been experimenting with human and Cybertronian DNA." She steeled herself by clenching her bed sheets in her one good hand. Oh Primus! She didn't want to tell them anything like this! For a moment she contemplated just stopping, but for some reason she didn't, couldn't. "They harvested eggs from human females that they kidnapped and kept in their labs, and then they injected streams of Cybertronian genetic codes into the eggs before implanting them back into the bodies of the females. Once that was done they returned the females to their families like nothing ever happened."

"So your mother?" Sideswipe trailed off.

"My mother was taken shortly before her husband passed away...but she was returned before he died. For that reason they must have assumed that I was his." Her chest suddenly felt heavy when she thought to her 'mother'. A woman that she had never known. "The pregnancy made her very ill as you can imagine." At their sympathetic looks she could only assume that they did understand. "The fetuses are too strong for a human body to house. I kicked her ribs until they broke to pieces as I grew and stretched out in the womb. In the end she passed away before she even went into labor and I had to be cut out of her. For that reason the other villagers labelled me a demon."

It was quiet until a surprisingly soft voice spoke up. "So that's why you called yourself a freak?"

"Yeah. Because I am a freak. An abomination. I'm not you and I'm not them. I'm neither and that means that there's no place for me." But to her that had always been a cruel reality, something that she was forced to accept and live with. She had her place, but she was all alone there. No one else shared it with her and that was ok. She had lived for numerous human lifetimes like that, going from false existence to false existence, fake identity to fake identity. To everyone else she was Lilah Follis, eighteen years old and a freak. Humans just seemed to feel that she was...not normal.

"That's not true."

She sluggishly turned her head towards Sideswipe who had spoken. "How do you figure? Humans don't live as long as I have. Humans can't do the things that I can. Hell most bots can't do what I can. And yet you say that I'm wrong?"

"Yeah I do say that you're wrong." Those deep blue optics flashed brightly as his mouth plates tilted up slightly. "You're not an abomination sweetspark, you're amazing. You are real proof that our species can meld together."

"Why would you want to meld together with humans anyways?" She ignored the furious humming of her spark, the happy purring and focused on him completely. Her kind were like the pretenders, and from what she understood from Moondancer no bots liked pretenders very well. Well she supposed that she was different in ways, to her knowledge she had no robotic form. Her body was just a blend of superhuman organs, and a series of circuits connected to her spark. The electromagnetic energy coursing through her had stopped her aging process long ago by strengthening her internal organs to the point that they didn't deteriorate like normal humans did. Her body functioned much like one of theirs did in that regard.

"Not all of us disdain humans Lilah." Optimus answered the question instead of Sideswipe. "In fact most of us like them very much. So you will hopefully understand why we accept you here and even value your existence."

She snorted. "Accepting it doesn't mean that you value it. It means that there isn't a lot that you can do about it short of taking care of me. And even if you did that there are others out there so it would be pretty pointless."

Ratchet's optics flashed excitedly. "There are more of your kind?"

Oh slag... Hadn't she learned to keep her big fragging mouth shut yet? No obviously not because she kept making things worse and worse every second that she was here. "A handful of us exist. The rest never made it because their 'vessels' didn't live long enough for them to reach a state where they could survive outside of the womb." She practically spat the word vessel like acid. "And before you ask that was how 'they' referred to the female carriers, not us."

They seemed to sense that she was uncomfortable talking about that particular topic so they changed to a different one, for that she was grateful.

"So how does your body function?"

She pursed her lips and thought about it for a moment. "Well I can ingest Energon like you can and it doesn't harm me... But I don't really need to because human bodies are able to process food items and convert it to energy, for us hybrids we convert our food to Energon to power our circuits and spark."

"Fascinating."

Oh yes...fascinating Ratchet. She didn't need to be inside of his helm to see the wild ideas flying around in his processor. They were probably the same things that every other mech that found out about them thought. She tensed defensively and subconsciously scooted away from Ratchet for good measure. The last thing she wanted was to be siphoned from again. Her movement caused them all to look back at her again. All except for Sideswipe who had never taken his optics off of her.

"My apologies Lilah, I did not mean to frighten you. I will not do anything to you that you do not approve of as Optimus has promised." Ratchet actually managed to look somewhat sheepish for a moment. But only for a moment before his gruff mask was back. "What about your other internals?"

"Well my bones are a lot stronger than human bones as you probably have already guessed. The crash that I was in would have killed any human, yet I will recover from it in a few days or so. My internal organs have also hardened to prevent tearing and rupturing. It also prevents them from deteriorating like human organs do. This way I have the capacity to live for nearly as long as one of your kind does."

"How old are you then? Your files say that you are eighteen, however I am going to guess that these are fake."

She eyed the manila file in Ratchet's servos in a bored manner. "Yup they're fake. I am actually around six hundred years old." Several sets of optics widened comically. She just smirked and shook her head at them. Slagging idiots.

"Whoa..." Sides smirked at her. "So you're gonna be around for a long time still huh?"

"Yeah...I guess." She muttered embarrassedly. This whole conversation was not going at all like she had anticipated or imagined it would. They were being almost...well they were being...nice to her. And understanding of her situation and what she was. Most mechs would have cut her open by now without remorse, as she had the scars, both mentally and physically to prove. But they were sitting calmly and allowing her to explain on her own terms and pace. There must be some alternative motive for this... "The oldest of us is around a thousand years old...I'm actually the youngest."

"I see. So do the rest function like you do? And why are you not all together? Surely it would be safer than wandering around separated from one another."

"Yeah more or less. We all have the same bodily functions even in terms of abilities. However mine appear to be stronger than the others for some reason. That was why, after we escaped I left on my own that way I didn't drag them down seeing as how 'they' were more interested in my abilities." Even though she had never been as close to the others as she had been to Moondancer, it still hurt her immensely to leave them all behind. She missed them a lot. But her choice had been for the best.

"What about your early life? Were you taken by the cons as soon as you were born or...?"

"No. We were allowed to grow up in the villages. At least for a little while." She snapped into her emotionless mode for this part because it was very hard for her to talk about. "I grew up in Ireland in a small village near the coast with my older brothers and sisters. In the village I was known as a demon or even a devil so I never really spent much time around other children or even the adults. The only ones that did accept me were my siblings. I had a lonely, but somewhat normal childhood not counting the strange things that I could do. But that all changed when one of the metal walkers came to retrieve me, that was what they were called by my kinsman." She explained at their confused looks.

"I can see why they would refer to us that way." The gruff black mech grunted.

"Yeah... Anyways when the con came to retrieve me he destroyed the whole village looking for me. But my older sister Aine took me and ran to the outskirts of the village where she told me that I had to run. When I asked her to come with me she told me that she had to go back and look for Ardan and the others. She left me there...I never saw any of them again after that." Ardan, Reilly, Aine, Sheela...all gone. For a moment she thought that she was going to cry, but she resisted it. Crying never did any good. Crying couldn't change anything anymore. And she had already cried herself out long ago.

"Did...did he catch you?" Sideswipe's question broke her out of her thoughts.

"He did." Her thoughts turned dark, back to the blackness that was her life after that day. "I was taken back to one of the Decepticon science bases that were located in Europe. There I was subjected to different kinds of experiments by them." Her mouth opened and closed a few times but she couldn't force the words out. So she opted to show them instead. Sitting up in her hospital bed, she grabbed her gown and lifted it to reveal the long nasty scars running across the length of her stomach and chest.

Several vents hitched, all besides Ratchet who had probably already seen them before. A sympathetic and understanding look passed through his normally gruff optics. Well she had answered one of his questions. "And on your back? Are those from the experiments as well?"

Her hands released her gown and allowed it to drop against her body again hiding the ugly marks from view. "No those were from punishments for disobeying orders or being noncompliant, for the most part. They did test the strength of our bodies, and that also included getting a good look at our spines. But mostly it was from plasma whips." She slammed her hands down over her ears when a loud angry sound buffeted her eardrums. Looking around the room she could see identical expressions of anger and disdain in each set of optics staring her down. It made her flinch back away from them wearily. Were they rethinking their choice to not test her or experiment on her? Were they angry at her for something?

The monitor went haywire when she tapped into her power and allowed its heated caress to slither through her circuits. Just drawing on it made her feel a little bit safer, not that she was so foolish to believe that she could fight her way past all of them in her state. Because she wasn't, and when they all snapped their attention back to her she flinched again and allowed her energy to visibly coat her skin. Her eyes narrowed on Optimus's and she allowed a rather impressive growl to escape from her throat.

A servo rubbed along the expanse of her back as softly as the caress of a leaf passing over one's skin. It made her jump almost completely out of her skin. A soft snicker reached her ears a second later. "Jumpy sweetspark? Relax no one's angry at you."

How had he known what she was thinking? She did relax slightly and draw her energy back slowly. She offered no apology for what she had done. In her eyes she hadn't done anything wrong. How was Sideswipe able to calm her down like he was? Even his brother had been able to calm her down when she had been resisting Ratchet's treatment because she was afraid of being sedated. Only Moondancer had ever been able to calm her down since this hell had begun. Not that she was prone to bouts of panic or anything, because she wasn't. She was tired and sore however, and that could explain her jumpiness she guessed.

"I think we should let her rest for now. We can and will continue the questions later." Ratchet shooed the other mechs out of the room, except for Sideswipe who refused to budge.

The red mech just smirked at her and leaned back against the wall near her bed using his arms and servos as an impromptu pillow. "Rest sweetspark. I'll look out for you when you sleep."

She eyed him wearily for a moment. The trust that she had in him was...not one forged from a tight bond, more like it was one formed from necessity. She needed something to ground her at this moment, and for some reason she had chosen him. That didn't mean that she liked it or would accept it once she recovered. Because no one could really be trusted. Not even him. Even so she nodded and laid down dropping into sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

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><p>(Sideswipe s POV)<p>

Sitting in the med bay was boring. The only parts that brought him any joy was when Ratchet would step too close to the supply closet so that he could push him in and lock it. Or when Ratchet was studying Lilah's blood and muttering to himself like an excited sparkling. These moments were recorded for later use as blackmail. Other than that he was pretty bored.

Well he was until Sunny popped in for a visit on the third day of him taking up post over the femme. At first his optics had widened and his jaw had dropped, but at Sunny's irritated look he quickly schooled his features into a smug smirk. "Did you decide to come and visit Lily?" He teased.

Sunny's scowl only deepened when his optics landed on the bed where Lilah was sleeping. "No. Optimus wants to see us for some reason."

He wouldn't point it out, but his twin was actually looking at Lilah with a much less gruff look than was usual. For good measure he even partially closed the bond so that Sunny couldn't read his thoughts. He knew that his fragger of a brother liked Lilah more than he admitted to. Now the real chore was getting him to admit it. But for now duty called. "Ok. Who's going to watch her though?"

Ratchet poked his head out of his back room and raised an optic ridge at him. "I am more than capable of watching after her Sideswipe. Now get going before I wrench you into stasis."

"Alright. Alright! Just don't take the wrench out Hatchet!" He jumped to his pedes and ran one digit over Lily's small body before drawing back and nodding to his brother. "Come on let's go then."

Sunny nodded and together they both exited the med bay and made their way to Optimus's office which was luckily right down the hall. Once they stopped in front of the door he pressed the button to let Optimus know they were there.

A second later the door slid open and Optimus's tall form ushered them inside. He sat down at his desk and looked between the two of them or more like he looked at Sunstreaker wearily. "I'm sure that you would like to know why I called you both in?"

"Yeah, you never call on us for anything." He quipped which earned him a stern look from Optimus.

"Very well then. I called you both here to ascertain whether or not you would be interested in being full time guardians for Lilah."

Before Sunny could grumble something impolite he pumped his servo in the air and whooped loudly. "Pit yes I would! Aww slag now I don't have to ask you myself!" Being the gung-ho mech that he was, he didn't even realize that his outburst had his brother and Optimus looking at him oddly. Well Sunny was scowling, and Optimus was just shaking his helm at him. When he finally realized that he was being stared at he coughed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry. But I uh, well I was going to ask anyways. So yeah I'll do it. If Sunny doesn't mind." He shifted his optics to his twin to see him glaring at him. "Aww come on Sunny!"

"I am not a squishysitter! Have someone else do it! She annoys me! She's a glitch! And she embarrassed me at her apartment the other day!" Sunny growled.

"Aww Sunny come on bro! You have to admit that she's cool to hang around with!"

"No."

"But I like her!"

"I don't care."

"But maybe she'll wash your alt mode for you!"

"Why would I want her to?"

He scowled and whacked his twin on the back of the helm. "Well then I'll be her guardian by myself! She doesn't need two of us anyways!"

That got Sunny to snap his helm over in his direction again with a furious scowl pulling at his mouth plates. "Why are you so interested in the squishy...er Lilah anyways? She's a little menace!"

"I just am okay? Even I can't explain it Sunny, but I do know that I want to protect her. With or without your help." It went silent while he and Sunny glared death at each other. He was not going to take back what he said. He was going to be her guardian whether Sunny was game or not.

Feelings of anger and even some resentment were wafting off of Sunny. But more than that was a feeling of hurt, and finally resignation. "Fine then! But you're carting her around when she needs to go somewhere! I'm not a squishy taxi service!"

He clasped his brother on the shoulder and smirked. "Sure thing bro. I'll cart her around until she breaks through your defenses and you start fighting me to let you cart her around." He quipped making Optimus chuckle quietly, and making Sunny glare plasma daggers at him. "So it's settled then! From now on we're Lily's guardians!"

"Wait a second... How long are we going to have to do this anyways?" Sunny suddenly asked.

"Who cares? Lily's awesome! And she can piss you off in an astrosecond which makes her even more awesome." He quipped resulting in him getting smacked over the helm painfully. He yelped and glared at his brother angrily.

Optimus looked back and forth between the two of them as if wondering what he was thinking in that processor of his. "Well until the war is over most likely."

"That could be centuries from now! Squishies don't even live that long! What do you want us to do? Guard her grave plot?" Sunny protested loudly.

Before Optimus could say anything he smirked at his twin. "Oh but she won't die nearly that fast Sunny. In fact she's probably going to be with us for a veeeeeeeeeeery long time. She is a hybrid after all."

A look of horror passed through Sunny's optics. "No. No way am I going to be a squishysitter for centuries!"

"More like many millennia to come." His comment earned him a wide opticked, yet somehow still menacing glare from his twin. "I said millennias, plural as in more than one."

"Oh pit no! No! No way! I retake my acceptance of this whole situation! Sides can take care of her alone cause there's no way that I'm going to be tied down to a half squishy for the rest of my life!"

Scowling again he smacked his twin's helm and huffed. "Stop calling her a squishy! Call her by her name Sunny! It's Lilah or Lily for short...or sweetspark." For some reason he didn't really want his brother calling her by the last one. "Well the first two, but only I can call her the last one! So find your own nickname for her besides squishy."

"Frag you Sides! What is your deal with the squishy...Lilah, anyways?!"

The question made him pause and really think about it. But he really didn't need to because Sunny could feel his protectiveness from the start, just as he could feel his own reluctance to admit that he was worried and protective of their new charge as well. What bothered him was that he couldn't just explain it away. "We're friends."

"Right...friends. And I'm in love with Bluestreak! What did I tell you Sides? What did I say about getting too attached to her? We can't be friends with squishies even if they are mixed breeds! What the slag are you thinking?"

"Why not?" He shot back irritably. "Why can't we be friends with them? Bee's friends with his charge! All of us are at least acquainted with Sam aren't we?" For the life of him he just couldn't understand Sunny's anger and reluctance over this. They were just taking over guardianship of Lilah to protect her! So what if he wanted to be her friend as well? What was the big deal about it anyways?

"Yeah but we aren't friends with him! At least I'm not and I don't plan on being friends with him either!"

His jaw snapped shut with an audible click. "Look Sunny! I can't explain this to you, but I don't really need to either! You feel the same way that I do even if you want to deny it because of your ego!" His twin bristled and glared him down but he refused to budge an inch. He couldn't explain this need to anyone else, and here Sunny was feeling the same damn way and trying to deny it. Which was only making it harder than it had to be on both of them. He finally lost his temper and snapped at his twin. "Look we're doing it even if you want to be an aft about it! That's all there is to it!"

Sunny growled and stalked out the door without saying another word to him. He'd get over it soon enough. He turned back to Optimus and smiled sheepishly. "So uh I guess that settles it huh?"

Optimus just shook his head. "I suppose so."

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

Since Sides had volunteered them to be the squishy's squishysitters. He had been forced to oversee her in the med bay when Sides was called out on patrol. He hated it. Hated being tied down and tethered to a small squishy like this. And she didn't seem to particularly like him too much either. Given his attitude towards her he couldn't really fault her for it, not that he really cared if he hurt her feelings.

At least she seemed to be recovering much faster than a normal squishy, and that meant that soon she would be out of the med bay thus freeing him from being trapped there as well. And the sooner he got away from Ratchet and his fawning over the squishy's heightened healing abilities, the better. If he didn't know any better he'd think that Ratchet was actually feeling some sort of affection for the little femme. But that was preposterous. Ratchet hated everyone besides maybe Optimus and Arcee. But he was starting to question that truth more and more after watching the gruff medic interacting with the small femme.

Every move was slow and was made with the utmost care, like he was dealing with a scared sparkling. Or something fragile and precious. Whatever the case he was growing more and more uncomfortable spending time in the med bay.

Which is why on the fourth day since being designated as her guardian, he was immensely pleased when Ratchet declared her good as new. Quite impressive really, her healing that is. Healing from such grievous wounds in mere days and not weeks or months as most humans would take.

"Alright Sunstreaker, she's good to go. Just make sure that she doesn't end up back in my med bay again anytime soon." Ratchet muttered gruffly even though his mouth plates were tilted up at the sides in a small smile.

Yup definitely weird. Whatever the reason for the medic's weird behavior could be ignored for right now. He stepped forward and hesitantly reached out for his 'charge'.

She started when he wrapped his servo around her and lifted her from her bed. The look of surprise quickly changed to one of irritation when she saw that he was the one that had picked her up, or maybe it was that she had been picked up at all.

But he ignored her scowling face and carried her out of the med bay dangling from his servo precariously. Sure he was being forced into this, but he still didn't want to touch her anymore then he had to.

"If you're so disgusted by touching me you can let me down you know?"

His optic ridges narrowed in an angry scowl but he did sit her down on her own two pedes anyways. Anything as long as he didn't have to touch her.

She shuffled her small pedes and muttered a small 'thanks' under her breath before she started down the autobot sized hallway again.

He followed along after her taking sparkling steps so that he didn't over step her and leave her behind. It only irritated him more, this slow progress they were making. How could humans get to places so slow and not go crazy?

It didn't even seem to bother her. But maybe it was because she was small and therefore used to this pace.

Whatever it was he was growing more and more irritated every astrosecond. "Can't you move any faster?!" He finally snapped when it took her a whole minute to make her way down a large corridor.

Her shoulders tensed and she turned to glare at him. "Yeah I can. But in case you haven't noticed I'm a lot smaller then you! I can't walk all the way across a city with a dozen leaps or so afthole!"

He ground his denta together in aggravation. Oh Sides was definitely going to pay for this when he got back. Growling low in his chassis he swooped down and picked her up in his servo again before depositing her on his shoulder. "Don't get used to being there squishy because this is only a one-time thing!" He stomped down the corridors towards the main hangar while she clutched at his helm to keep herself stabilized on her perch. Damn fragging squishy hybrids! Fragging dumbaft brothers from pit! Why did he have to get stuck watching her when his brother was the one that offered to be her guardian?!

And better yet why didn't he hate the feel of her on his shoulder like he wanted to? Why didn't she stink like normal squishies? And why wasn't her skin all oily like them too? All these questions only served to make his mood even worse. So when he stepped into the hangar and saw Bumblebee with his 'charges' talking to Arcee and Jazz he growled low and headed over to a more abandoned part of the hangar.

He sat down gracefully on a metal chair and grabbed Lilah from his shoulder before sitting her on the floor, a little too roughly apparently because she stumbled and glared at him. He huffed and tried to ignore her.

A delighted chirp sounded from somewhere close by. "You're beautiful! You're beautiful it's true!"

When he looked up Bee was crouched down in front of his and his brother's charge. He looked away deeming it safe enough for her to interact with Bee; mech wouldn't hurt a fly unless it suddenly sprouted plasma cannons and shot him. That lasted for about an astrosecond when he felt something stumble back into his pede. Looking down he was met with the sight of his charge clinging to his leg and looking at Bee warily. And Bee for his part looked confused and a little hurt that she seemed to be somewhat scared of him. Or maybe threatened was a better way to describe her reaction, because she really didn't seem to be scared of much. "Relax squishy. Bee won't hurt you."

Her head snapped up so that she was looking at his face instead of at Bee who was fidgeting in excitement. "My name isn't Squishy! It's Lilah!"

"Fine then Lilah," He drawled her name in a bored manner which he hoped would irritate her. "Bee won't hurt you. And even if he tried he wouldn't get very far since I'm your Guardian."

"Guardian? What the slag do you mean you're my Guardian?"

Luckily Bee's squishy had made his way over which saved him from having to explain it to her. "It means that he's your protector. Optimus probably assigned him to protect you personally, like what happened with Bee and I." Bee's squishy's green optics seemed to light up on the small femme standing beside his pede.

The dark haired femme at his side didn't seem quite pleased with her 'boyfriend' ogling another femme. She smacked Bee's charge over the back of the head and offered Lilah a bright smile. "Ignore him and his stupidity."

"Sure." If possible Lilah looked even more weary of the humans near her then of him or the other bots standing slightly behind them.

"I'm Mikeala and this is Sam!" Bee's second charge gestured to herself then at the green eyed male at her side. "We spend a lot of time here actually, well we did! But we're actually going away for college soon since it's safe for us to do that now."

Yup here was where he tuned the whole conversation out. Or tried to at least. With his charge still clinging to his pede it was hard to ignore her or temporarily forget about her existence.

"Lilah. My name is Lilah." Lilah never made a move to walk towards them or to make physical contact in any way.

Sides hadn't given him the details yet as to why she was so skittish around humans and bots. You would think that as a hybrid she would get along alright with both species but apparently not... In fact he was sure that she was only clinging to him because he was tasked with looking after her, not because she trusted him. She probably didn't even know how to trust somebot else besides herself.

Bee shifted closer to her and ever so gently held out a servo for her. He chirped and offered her a small encouraging smile. "I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky!" Played from his speakers.

It startled him when she looked up at him as if to ask him if Bee was really okay, and when he nodded she turned and slowly held out a hand to touch Bee's servo. Slowly she inched herself away from his pede and closer to the yellow scout until she was holding one of his digits in her small hand. But as soon as Bee moved to pick her up she detached herself and scrambled back against his pede again.

Luckily he wasn't forced to explain her behavior to anyone, not that he would have bothered, or even knew the reason why really, when his twin walked into the hangar with Ironhide and Bluestreak. Thank primus! Now he could get rid of the squishy for a few joors at least.

His twin walked over to him and looked around at the other bots and humans gathered, then down at their charge who was crouched against his pede defensively. A gentle look passed through his brother's optics as he knelt down and held out his own servo for her. "It's alright sweet spark. Bee and the others don't mean you any harm."

He pushed aside the feelings of understanding and compassion flooding the bond, fueling his own miniscule sympathy and...whatever else he felt for the small hybrid femme. It wasn't his place to care about her so long as he did his job and protected her. That was why he quickly got up and, uncaring that he knocked her aside with his pede, and walked away out of the hangar.

No. There was no way that this was going to be anything more than a job for him. That was why he didn't look back despite the angry engines revving at him, or the feelings of irritation from his twin. Not even the small amount of...something pulling at his spark could. She was just a squishy even if she was more than that. He refused to see her as anything more. Not as a friend, or an ally. Nothing. She was nothing to him.

His pulsing spark tried to convince him otherwise. But he was Sunstreaker and he didn't even listen to his spark if he thought that it was going to lead him astray. So he shut it out and shifted to his alt mode before peeling out of the hangar. Away from the hangar and from his 'charge'.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R Did the explanation make sense to you guys? I tend to understand what I'm saying in my own head, but sometimes it doesn't make sense to anyone else. So let me know if it confused or made no sense to you. Anyways see ya next time!<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Ok so I have said many times that I will not hold my story hostage for reviews or anything like that, and I won't. But! When you put so much time into writing each chapter and editing it and stuff reviews make all the time spent on this worth it. So if you do enjoy the chapters please leave a review, that way I know that everyone likes where the story is going! I'm not going to force it, but I would appreciate it. I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>"I can't believe I'm doing this..." Lilah muttered from where she sat curled up in Sideswipe's black leather interior. No bike. It was destroyed beyond repair. Not that she would have been allowed to ride it anyways thanks to her Guardians.<p>

She still didn't know how she felt about having two giant robot aliens following her everywhere she went. Or in Sideswipe's case driving her everywhere she went while his afthole of a brother followed along. Even with Moondancer she had never rode in anything but her sparkling hold, but back then bots didn't have alt modes...well besides iron carts and slag. So this was the first time she was riding inside of a bot's alt mode. And it was weird. Weird because she was afraid to touch anything at all for fear that she would be touching something...not so appropriate. And yes they did have them despite what any fleshy might think. But she was pretty sure that that was underneath and in the back near the trunk...at least she hoped that it was.

She scowled to herself. Why the slag was she sitting her contemplating whether or not she was inadvertently molesting a giant robotic alien? She didn't have an answer so she did what any normal half earthling would do...she firmly put her hands in her lap and tried to ignore the fact that she was in fact riding in a giant robot alien. Even if for her this wasn't the most crazy thing she had ever done. Nope definitely not.

The seatbelt tightened around her large chest before Sideswipe's voice came through the speakers. "Thinking too much again Lily? Would it make you feel better if you drove?"

"No not really. Because I really wouldn't be driving if something crazy went down would I? Driving means that I drive...and a giant robot alien doesn't take over the wheel at random intervals. So no I don't want to drive. But thanks anyways Sideswipe." She bit her tongue and looked out the window at the last part. Frag she was so fragging stupid that it was unreal! Why was she thanking him for asking her a question? Better yet why hadn't she just taken the bus to her apartment instead of letting him drag her into his alt mode? She grimaced and wrinkled her nose. Probably because buses smelled like slag.

The entire 'vehicle' rumbled with his laughter and the seatbelt tightened a little bit more, almost like a hug. "Ok then. I just wanted to make sure that my charge was content."

"I'm riding inside of you Sideswipe," She deadpanned as her hands finally wandered down to the seat to run over the luxurious black leather. "That's a spot that's reserved for mechs not femmes." As soon as the words were out of her mouth she groaned and slammed her head back into the seat. And him laughing at her didn't help either. "Shut up."

"Sorry. It's just the way that you said that was hilarious."

If she could see his face plates she would probably smack the smirk right off of them, because she knew for a fact that he was finding way too much amusement in this situation for his own good. At least they were pulling into her apartment complex now and that meant that she would be able to get out and have some time to herself in a minute.

Sideswipe parked in her reserved spot and opened his driver side door for her so that she could climb out. She climbed out and shut the door ignoring the looks that the other tenants were giving her for her new 'ride'. But then Sideswipe had to go and make things a thousand times worse when his holoform popped out of the passenger's side.

She gaped at him openly for an astrosecond, as did every other femme in and around the parking lot. While she was standing there frozen he came around to her side and grabbed her hand so that he could tow her into her building. Past all the hungry human females watching them, or more specifically him. But of course he didn't spare a single look to any of them. And why would he? He was a giant robot alien from another planet. Human females probably didn't even remotely interest him on a level of attraction. At least things couldn't get any worse right?

Well if Sunstreaker came in then they could and would get worse. But back to the matter at hand. It had been Sideswipe's idea to return as well as her own desire to come back, the question for her was why he wanted to come back. "So Sideswipe, why did you want to come back here?"

He opened the door to her apartment and ushered her inside while he looked around wearily before shutting and locking the door. Turning to her he gestured with a servo down the hallway towards her bedroom. "We're here to get some things for you to take to the room we've had set up for you at the base."

Everything stopped. Every thought in her head just went screeching to a halt. Literally. "Um what? What are you even talking about? I am not moving into your base."

"But Lily it's safer for you to stay there then it is for you to stay here," Sideswipe argued.

"I live here," She stated firmly. "I am not moving into your base. You guys didn't make Sam move into the base with you! So why do I suddenly have to?" Before she even gave him a chance to answer her she turned her back on him and stalked into her kitchen to make something to eat, leaving him sputtering something about her being difficult.

What was it with Cybertronians and being control freaks? First they sedate her and take her to their base, then they pretty much force her to tell them what she is, THEN they assign her two protectors, and NOW they want her to move into their base? Nope. Not happening.

She proceeded to ignore him while she made herself a slice of veda bread with butter. While she was eating her small breakfast she leaned against the counter and peered around the small apartment. Her eyes landed on Sideswipe pouting by her door. Primus his holoform looked so fragging silly pouting like that. Did he not realize that his holoform was like 6'2 and ripped as slag? And did he also not realize that he was on the fast track to being made fun of if any other earthlings saw him like that? No probably not. Giant alien robots had other things to worry about other then what humans thought of them.

She swallowed the last of her sweet bread and washed the knife that she had used before sitting it in the wash rack. "So who's idea was it to make me move into the base? And why wasn't I informed of this before today?" Maybe she should have known that they were thinking along these lines when she was given a room to stay in last night on base. But after the little kick-the-somewhat-fleshy by Sunstreaker she hadn't really cared about anything.

He managed to look sheepish by scratching the back of his neck and shifting from side to side. "Well Optimus thought that it would just be safer for you to stay there since we don't really know why the cons want you."

She grimaced and turned away. No they didn't know why the cons were after her kind, and if she had it her way they never would. She took a deep breath and shook those less than pleasant thoughts away for later contemplation. "I'll be fine here Sideswipe. I've always been fine on my own. Pit I've always been able to handle whatever they throw at me. And I know that you guys might not think that one of my kind can fight a Decepticon, but we actually can. We're far, far stronger than any human could ever even hope to be. So don't be so worried that I'm going to end up dead or something."

It wouldn't even be a real loss if she did die... Just let her die in battle and she'd be happy.

But her companion seemed to not particularly like what she said because one astrosecond he was on the other side of the room, and the next he was looming over her. "Look Lily maybe you have been misinformed about this whole Guardian situation."

"Oh? How so?" Her body tensed up by reflex but there was no room to take a step back away from him. So her body immediately tensed up for a fight instead.

Those dark blue optics that she wanted to believe held malice and disdain narrowed on her. "We Guardians take this duty very seriously Lily, maybe you were misinformed about that. Whatever the case Sunny and I have been tasked with protecting you, and for me it was because I wanted to! And we will do whatever it takes to make sure that you stay safe, even if we have to make sure that you are safe from yourself." He suddenly inched closer to her until his front was practically touching the front of her body. "I know that trusting somebot else is hard for you."

"What the pit do you know?" She snapped back angrily. Her power teemed just beneath the surface of her skin in her anger. How dare he think that he knew who she was or how she felt? They could never understand a half breed and how they felt! Because THEY weren't abominations who killed their own birth mothers!

"I know that you're hurting more then you let on. And I also know that you have been hurt so much that you assume that everybot is out to get you!" He leaned down so that he was so close that his breath ghosted over her lips. "Not everybot wants to hurt or betray you. I don't. And I know that you won't just believe that right now sweetspark, but it is true. I can give you all the time that you need to accept that, and I'll still be here when you do. But for now I need you to work with me here."

At that moment they were broke apart when someone knocked on her door. Well when Sunny knocked on her door. As if sensing his electromagnetic signature wasn't enough, the shouting to open the door before he broke it down clued her in. She disentangled herself from Sideswipe and opened her door.

Obviously Sunny had never heard that pressing yourself completely against the door you were knocking on wasn't a good idea...because when she yanked it open he fell on her... For a klik or so she was too stunned to do or say anything and from the wide eyed look so was he. But surprisingly she recovered first and shoved him off of her. "Pit Sunstreaker! Hasn't anyone ever taught you how to knock on a door properly?"

The blonde male got up and dusted himself off...or maybe he was trying to get her nasty flesh germs off of his perfect frame. He glared at her and his brother. "Well? I've been waiting for almost an entire breem! Where's the stuff we're taking so we can get back already!?"

Sideswipe huffed and pointed at her. "She says she's not staying at the base."

Both of them turned to her at the same time making her tense just slightly. She scowled and crossed her arms over her chest and lifting her nose at them. "Yeah I did say that! And no one is going to force me to do anything ever again!" Her voice almost broke at the word force but she managed to only slightly waver before getting it out. Man this was why she never spent time with other beings! It was just to primus damn hard for her!

Sunstreaker growled at her before pushing past her and bending down to retrieve a stack of boxes next to her door.

"What the pit are you doing?" She watched him pop up several boxes before unhooking her gaming system and packing it and her games away. "Hello? Are you listening to me?"

"Here Sides take this and put it by the door."

"Sure." Her XBOX one was handed to Sideswipe so that he could start a stack of boxes by her door. And then he grabbed several more boxes and stalked into her room while Sunny went to her bathroom.

She growled and stomped after Sunstreaker finding him digging her toothbrush and toothpaste out of her cabinet, along with various other essentials. "What the slag are you doing?!" She grabbed the box from his 'hands' and started attempting to unpack everything to return them to their proper places.

This lasted for less than an astrosecond before the box was yanked away and slammed down onto the floor. "Leave it femme!" Sunstreaker snarled at her from where he was now knelt down underneath her sink digging out female items and slag.

As a package of pads went flying past her face she stomped her foot and threw herself at Sunstreaker's back. "Get out of my bathroom you freak! Out! Out! Out!" Every shout was followed up by her slamming her fist into his head.

"You crazy glitch! Get off of me!"

"Then get out of my bathroom! Leave my stuff alone!" His hands were trying to pry her off but she was practically glued to his back. "Get out of my bathroom!"

At that moment Sideswipe popped into her bathroom with several boxes held in his large servo-turned-hands, as well as a pair of her silk blue panties on one of his digits.

Heat rushed into her cheeks when the clueless mech sat the boxes down so that he could finger at her panties. Oh my primus!

"What are these Lily? They feel really soft..." And then he went and made the whole situation a thousand times worse by sticking his face into the crotch of her panties...and sniffing. "And they smell good."

"OH MY PRIMUS STOP SNIFFING MY UNDERWEAR SIDESWIPE!" She snatched her garment away and just shook with pure rage as she clutched it in her hands. Oh...why did this have to happen to her? Ok there were limits and they had already passed hers long ago! "OUT! GET OUT BATHROOM RAIDER AND UNDERWEAR SNIFFER!"

"What are underwear?" Sunstreaker grumbled.

There was a sharp smack when she palmed her forehead in defeat. They...they were so fragging stupid! Sighing deeply she looked up at the two of them and held up her panties so that they could see them clearly. "These here are called underwear."

Sideswipe looked interested while Sunstreaker just snorted. "Yeah we know that."

"Good." She gritted out as she sat them down on her counter and grabbed the band of her sweat pants. "Underwear are what earth femmes use to cover their...ports. See?" She slid her sweatpants down just far enough for them to see a pair of dark purple lace panties.

Sideswipe blanched immediately and backed away slightly. "So I...just inadvertently sniffed your port?" His voice broke in building horror.

"Yes, yes you did." Grunting she grabbed her panties and shoved them into the box with her clothes. "If it makes you feel any better they were just washed so there shouldn't be any...of my germs or whatever in there." Oh primus this was so slagging embarrassing! She grabbed the boxes from the floor and started back to her bedroom while they were still too shocked, or disgusted...whichever one it was, to stop her.

But she didn't get very far before one of them grabbed the collar of her shirt and lifted her into the air. She didn't actually have to guess which one it was because Sideswipe was never rough with her, that meant that it was Sunstreaker. That also meant that he was about to meet a very unpleasant fate at her hands if he kept grabbing at her like this. "Put me down Bathroom Raider!"

She was studiously ignored while he carried her, dangling from her shirt, into her living room before dumping her onto the carpet unceremoniously. "Did you get all of her clothes Sideswipe?" Sunstreaker called to his twin.

"Yeah!" Sideswipe came around the corner by her bathroom with the rest of her boxes. When he saw her laying on the floor glaring at Sunstreaker he gave his twin a reprimanding look. "Sunny you can't just manhandle her like that. It's rude."

His twin just grunted and grabbed her boxes. "I'm not a man so it doesn't count Sides."

Ooooh she was so going to get him for this! Both of them!

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><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

Optimus had made sure that their charge was given a room right next to theirs so that she could come to them for anything she needed. There was even a door that connected the two rooms together on the inside, and it was big enough for him and Sunny to get through as well.

Sunny was still brooding over the whole bathroom raider thing, so he spent the better part of the afternoon helping their charge move boxes into her room. As far as rooms went it was nicer than the soldiers rooms, with a full sized bed and nightstand in the corner of the room opposite of the door to his and Sunny's rooms. A dresser sat next to said door, and a nice desk rested near the foot of her bed. Yup definitely nicer than the soldiers quarters. But that was only because he and Ratchet had chipped in some of their own earth credits to get her nicer things for her living quarters. Why Ratchet had wanted to do something like that, he wasn't sure, but he had an inkling that the medic liked Lilah quite a lot.

Probably because she pissed Sunny off and made everyone's day by sending him into a spaz attack. "Where do you want this to go?" He held up her flat screen TV and she pointed at the dresser so he sat it there. Every time he asked where she wanted him to put something she just pointed wherever, she wasn't talking to him. Probably mad at him for practically forcing her to move. The real question was why hadn't she just disabled his and Sunny's holoforms so that they couldn't do that?

Holoforms were strange things. Through them they were able to feel and do things that humans could do. If the wind shifted and blew a cold breeze on them they felt it, if a human pressed their skin against theirs it tickled... It was still a foreign and strange thing for him to utilize. But he actually liked it because it meant that he could follow his charge wherever she went. That she could disable it so easily hadn't sat well with him at all, but she hadn't.

He shook those thoughts out of his processor and finished helping her unpack all of her games and her XBOX one. Just to be a gentlemech he even hooked it up for her so that she didn't have to. Once that was done she had finished putting her clothes into her dresser, and was sitting on her dark red bed spread watching him...and scribbling in a black leather bound book? "What are you doing?" He hopped onto her bed and peeked around her shoulder.

The face plates of a slender femme stared back up at him from the paper. Well she had said that she had met their kind before right? So maybe it was one of her captors? But if that was the case why would she be drawing her? No that didn't seem right to him. "Who is that?"

She tensed slightly and snapped her sketchbook shut. "No one."

The terseness of the answer surprised him, as did the hurt and anguish he could clearly hear when she snapped at him. That femme was obviously somebot very important to her, and somebot that caused her a lot of pain for whatever reason. His mouth fell open several times but no words came out. At least not about what he wanted to know. "Are you hungry? Do you want to go to the cafeteria and eat?" As soon as the words were out he wanted to smack himself in the helm. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

**'You got that right.'** Sunny poked fun at him.

**'Shut up Sunny you slaggy bastard!'** Feelings of irritation came over the bond before it went silent again. When he focused back in on her again she hadn't moved at all from the position she had been in. Had something he said...bothered her? "Lily?"

"Don't...don't call me that." A pain filled whisper.

"Ok I won't if you don't want me to." He scooted to the side of her bed and put his pedes on the ground. Why was she suddenly so against the nickname he had given her after being assigned as her Guardian? Better yet why was she suddenly so pained? And all over a sketch? She wasn't ready to answer him like he wanted her to. The pain was too deep and too raw for her still.

And if there was anything he had learned it was when to push somebot, and when not to push somebot. And now was not the time to push her for something she wasn't ready to speak of. But how could he get her to open up and feel more comfortable with him when she wasn't willing to talk? When she obviously didn't know how to trust somebot else?

He racked his processor trying to think of a solution to this problem and it brought up memories of when he and Sunny had been taken in by Optimus and Ratchet when they were still younglings. They had been completely insane, lost in their own dark tormented sparks, and unable to trust anyone but each other. They had fought against those that they now called friends. They had lashed out and inflicted horrible injuries on Ratchet, Jazz, Optimus, Ironhide. Pit the list could go on all cycle. But through all of that they had never been given up on. Whether it was something so small as Optimus coming down to talk to them in their holding cell, or Ratchet making sure that they were given enough Energon, they had always been looked after. At first it had been...scary, but the kindness they were shown eventually broke through the hard shells that they had built up around their sparks. Venting. Ranting. Spilling vorns worth of pain onto those that they had learned, grudgingly at first, to trust.

And now here he was in the opposite pedes this time, with someone else that desperately needed something that no bot else had been willing to give. Well no bot that was still alive and present. So what should he do? If he told her stories about his home, would she understand? Would she even care? Could he chip through her defense even a little bit so that she could feel the comfort that was being offered to her?

Well...the only way to find out was to try right? "You know...Sunny and I grew up without our creators too." He started quietly. She made no outward motion to show that she was really even listening. It made him pause for an astrosecond, but he felt that he needed to do something to get her to see that they really weren't so different from one another. "Have you heard of the pits on Cybertron?"

"Yeah."

A flash of surprise shot through him, but then again she was always surprising him wasn't she? "Well Sunny joined the pits as a Gladiator when we were younger so that he could provide for us. He felt that he had to do something but...he didn't want me to be a part of it because he wanted me to be safe. But he didn't bring in enough credits to support us both, so I ended up becoming a Gladiator as well."

She finally turned her head to look at him and there was something in her optics, underneath all of the distrust and pain, a glint of something more. Something that it would take a lot of time and effort to reach completely.

"We supported each other when no one else would through that time. And it was really hard and...sometimes even scary, and I'm not going to lie and tell you that we made it out sane because we didn't. Pain can corrupt somebot's spark until they can't even remember who they were anymore." He could still remember the way it felt, taking that first vent after letting everything out. After telling somebot else all that he had went through and felt. How uplifting it was to finally breathe easier after so much time spent suffocating underneath his own despair. "That's what happened to Sunny and I...it got so bad that we barely even remembered why we were so messed up in the first place. Pit sometimes we didn't even really remember one another! But...then we got caught by Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide...and things changed. Not right away of course. No Sunny and I were too messed up to even realize that they were trying to help. We fought them every step of the way, attacking them, spewing death threats at them... But they never gave up through all of that. And one day it was like...I got slapped in the face plates and I could just see what they were doing."

She snorted and turned away from him. "It doesn't work like that Sideswipe."

"It does...it did for me at least. I realized that they were trying to help us and it was like...there was light for the first time in my life. But to accept that help I had to admit that I really did need it. I had to admit that I was messed up and that was hard to consciously admit to. But it was that or go back to being crazy and I didn't want that anymore. So I took the help that Optimus and the others offered me." He breathed in deep through his holoform's lungs and exhaled. Thinking about times like that were never easy for him. Talking about it was even harder. But... "They helped us. We got better, well as much as we could. And now I know myself, and I trust myself and the other bots around me. It's better than being alone and lost."

"I'm alone by choice. And I'm not lost." She gritted out as soon as he went silent again.

Denial. Everybot had to go through the denial phase before they realized that they really were messed up. She was no different. "You don't have to accept the truth today Lilah, but you will someday." She glared at him angrily and jumped off of the bed before storming out the door. He just watched her go with feelings swirling around in his spark that he could, and couldn't explain. It would be a while before she came around still. But he could wait.

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

"Ooh I fragging hate him!"

Sunstreaker looked up from his painting when the squishy...er Lilah stormed past the half open door to his and his twin's room. Sideswipe had cut off the bond with him so he was clueless as to what had upset the little femme. Not that he really cared, well not because he actually cared, but more like he was curious in a completely uncaring way.

So he got up and sauntered from the room, following the squi...Lilah's muttering and cursing all the way to one of the training rooms where bots and human soldiers trained together. Her glitching stopped for a klik or so before he heard the sound of chains rattling and then the constant hard pounding of her beating on a punching bag.

He snorted and pushed the button to open the door so that he could watch her make a fool of herself. Well that was the plan, but when he walked in and saw her do a spinning roundhouse kick to the punching back which snapped the chain like a toothpick, he was surprised. And he was even more surprised when she snarled and moved onto the next punching bag. It didn't escape his notice that they were the bags that the smaller bots used to practice on either.

He felt more then saw Sideswipe's surprise when he came up beside him and saw the carnage the little femme was wreaking on their training equipment. She was denting and puncturing the hard metal plating on the bot punching bags with ease and snapping them off of their chains.

"Umm Sunny did you...?"

"No. I didn't do slag, you did!" Now they were going to have to replace all the equipment in here thanks to their 'charge'. Some days he really hated his twin... Even if he was pleasantly surprised that a squishy...fraggit! That Lilah was actually quite skilled at servo to servo combat!

Apparently the commotion could be heard for quite a ways because Ironhide popped in with a scowl on his face plates a breem or so later. "What the slag are you two slaggers doing in here?" When his optics landed on Lilah destroying their training equipment they widened comically as he stepped fully into the room.

"Frag this fragging bag to the fucking pits!" Lilah cursed and roundhouse kicked another bag right off its chain before she leg dropped it with a loud bang when it hit the floor. "And frag anybot who think they can force me to move! I'll get you slaggers back one day just you wait!" She moved on to the next piece of equipment, a practice dummy and started denting that next.

A small crowd started to gather at some point made up of human soldiers, and several other bots like Jazz, Arcee, and even Ratchet. "Umm what are we supposed to train with now?" Arcee muttered under her breath.

"Each other I guess. At least until we can replace all of this stuff." Ironhide muttered. "I have to say that our femme here has a nasty punch for being so small."

And the wasted metal would attest to that... But eventually she ran out of things to punch and kick short of the exercise bikes and stuff on the human side of the room. When that happened she stomped her foot and cracked the floor which sent some of the human soldiers scurrying back away from her.

Then they started whispering that she was some kind of freak, which she could obviously hear because she shot the lot of them a glare. But underneath that glare was something else that didn't quite sit well with him in his spark. Hurt. He didn't care though. At least that was what he was going to tell anybot that asked him, because he didn't care about anybot else besides his brother.

But his brother had no such qualms about yelling at the soldiers to leave their charge alone. Not that she seemed to really appreciate him yelling at them.

"Leave them alone Sideswipe. It's just their nature to dislike things that are different." Aggression all worked out, or at least as much as it could be, Lilah stomped over towards them and ducked out the door without a backwards glance.

For some reason he decided to bypass the other bots and follow her. Not because he was worried about her, because he wasn't, but because he didn't want to have to keep replacing the stuff that she broke. That was why he grabbed her just outside the door and started in the direction of the hangar with her protesting to be put down.

He ignored her and entered the hangar, finding the same spot that they had sat together at yesterday and re-taking that same spot. Only this time he didn't put her down. "So what made you destroy the training room squishy? You do know that Sides and I will probably have to help fix that right?"

"Good. He deserves it!" She snapped out refusing to look at him.

"Why? What the slag did he do to put cyberants up your aft?" He smirked at the look of death she sent him. Pfft! Just because she could destroy metal with her bare hands didn't mean that she could take him. No one could take him, not Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet, not even Megatron himself! And certainly not a little squishy!

"He was trying to mind fuck me earlier! So I got pissed and took it out on your training room!"

Mind...fuck...? He had to search the internet for a moment to understand what that meant. Suffice to say he was thoroughly disgusted after having thousands of pictures and articles depicting squishy sex flash through his processor, before he finally found the definition of what she said. And when he did he could only furrow his optic ridges. "How did Sides mind fuck you?"

She huffed and looked at anything but him. "He just did okay? Ask him yourself."

To say that he was irritated with her avoidance was an understatement. When he asked somebot a question they answered him, promptly because he demanded respect and attention. But here was a little half organic refusing his inquiries... If he wasn't supposed to protect her he would have already stomped on her for her troublesome behavior. "Look Squishy-"

"Lilah! My name is Lilah Sunnyboy! I know that you're smart enough to be able to remember, and pronounce my name!" Her eyes met his with a glare that made her rich sage colored eyes several shades darker.

"Well then Lilah! Tell me what my idiot brother did to piss you off." He spat out her name like even saying it disgusted him. Just to piss her off even more because he really didn't like her. At least he was pretty sure that he didn't.

Her eyes drifted off to the side breaking their glare. "He asked me about a picture that I was drawing."

"What did it look like slag?" He snickered.

"No." She gritted out through clenched teeth. "He was asking me questions about it that I refused to answer. So he told me a story about when he was growing up..." Her voice cut off as her eyes met his optics again; she skipped over something in her story that much was obvious to him. "And then he tried to tell me that I was lost and alone...and when I told him that I was alone by choice and not lost, he told me that I had to accept it sooner or later. So I got pissed off at him and took it out on the training equipment. There are you happy now?!"

Tense shoulders, defensive posture, she was the very picture of someone that was in denial. He sighed at the stupidity of his brother. Sides just didn't realize that not everybot was going to break quickly like he had; some would take more time and would fight it even more than he did. Lilah was obviously different than his twin in that regard, she was more like... He froze at the train of thought passing through his processor. No way was he trying to compare a squishy to himself! But he had and he couldn't dispute it now because it had already happened. That only served to make him angry at himself, because he knew that it meant that he did not really hate the squishy as much as he thought if he was comparing her to himself. The shock made him hesitate to answer her question, and when he did the answer wasn't as angry as he wanted it to be. "Yeah sure." He muttered more to himself then to her.

A look of surprise flashed through her optics when he answered her, like she wasn't expecting an answer at all from him.

Well in her defense he normally wouldn't have answered anybot else except for his brother. What the slag was wrong with him lately? Anybot else human or bot would have been a stain on the ground just for looking at him wrong and yet...he let her get away with embarrassing him and making him question himself!

Before he could really think on it his twin skated into the hangar and made a beeline for him and Lilah. "Hey Lil, sorry for earlier." His twin knelt down next to his legs and held his servo out to their 'charge'. "I won't bring it up again for now promise."

"Sure." She turned away from Sides and gave him the cold shoulder.

Ouch. Sides never handled being ignored well. As soon as he thought that his twin whined and started squirming to get her attention. Only she didn't even act like she was hearing it. He had to give her props for that because Sides could get really annoying when he was whining. Shifting on his seat he wrapped a servo around Lilah and moved her up to his shoulder earning startled looks from his brother, and her.

"I thought riding on your shoulder was only a one-time thing?" Lilah muttered darkly.

"Anyone that can ignore Sides's whining deserves a free ride to the cafeteria." His brother glared at him and got up to his own pedes before shifting his optics to their femme charge. He only smirked and walked right by Sides to piss him off more. At least that was what he would say if anybot asked him about why she was there; on the inside he admitted that it wasn't so bad having her on his shoulder.

And for the millionth time since he had met her he mentally beat himself up for even thinking such thoughts.

* * *

><p>Please R&amp;R! Even if it's only a 'good chap' or something, it still lets me know what your guy's general opinion is! I won't hold the story hostage like I've said, but I do spend a lot of time on the computer working on these stories so feedback is very much appreciated! Peace!<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

So I'm going to reply to some reviews real quick since I got five for the last chapter! Answerthecall-Thanks! And yeah life has been a real glitch to her! amberreed69-Thanks! And hopefully you will follow it until the end! SweetSpark22-Yeah Sunny really does need to get over himself! Eventually it will happen...maybe. Tziphora-I hope it's interesting enough to keep your attention! As for the other thing I've been thinking on it! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>"Why do you have to leave the base again?" An exasperated voice asked her.<p>

"Because Sunnyboy, I have to work. You don't have to come with me if you don't want to. I can have Arcee take me if it's too much of an inconvenience for you." Lilah kept walking towards the hangar without even giving him the attention that she knew he was demanding from her with his voice. Why did Sideswipe have to go on patrol today of all days? "Besides I vaguely recall something being said about you refusing to allow a 'squishy' inside of your cab." She spat before she finally spun around to face the tall golden mech.

Sunstreaker just glared at her angrily and transformed down into his alt mode leaving the driver's side door open for her. "Get in squishy."

For a moment she just stood there in complete shock staring at the golden mech who had been acting so erratically in the last few days that even Sideswipe couldn't tell what was really bothering him. Well if he did he didn't mention it to her, or maybe he was trying to give Sunny...er Sunstreaker time to come to terms with what was bothering him. Whatever the case he had been more moody...yet he was allowing more contact between them, though it seemed at times that it was grudging on his part.

"Are you going to get in squishy? Or are you going to skip work today?" Sunstreaker groused.

Snapping out of her stupor she hastily scrambled into the cab, not even having to shut the door behind herself because he did it before she could even get settled into her seat...er his...something. The seatbelt slid over her chest and clicked into place before the engine revved to life and he peeled out of the hangar.

Ok this was...even more awkward than anything that she had done in a long time. Here she was sitting in a giant robot alien who hated her guts, but who was also giving her a ride to work. What was this world coming to? For an astrosecond she thought about breaking the silence with some conversation, but it wasn't really her forte, nor was it his. So she figured that it wouldn't be received well and remained quiet.

Then the most surprising thing happened. "So squishy where am I taking you?"

Him actually talking to her, even if it was a normal question, shocked her into jumping up in her seat...er yeah... "Umm I work at the painting and detailing garage in the city." She mumbled awkwardly. Yup. Talking never got any easier for her unless she was pissed off, in those cases she would go off and spew whatever angry words were in her head with no regards for who or what was listening to her. So she would take her introverted awkward self for right now.

"Really? You paint and detail cars?"

She huffed at the surprised and almost disbelieving tone of voice he used to ask that question. "Yeah I do. When I was going through High School again I started helping out there part time. Mr. Saunders was impressed with my work so he kept me after I graduated." If she wasn't sitting in his seat she probably would have slumped back into the dark leather in an attempt to disappear. However she was positive that one little act on her part would result in her being tossed from the vehicle so she didn't attempt it.

"Surprising...that anyone would think you're talented that is." There was a distinctly joking tone to his voice.

As much as she tried to stop her jaw's descent to the ground it was impossible and it soon ended up in her lap. Figuratively of course. But if her jaw hinges had suddenly snapped it would have been exactly like that she was sure. "Did...did you just joke around with me?"

The vehicle shifted..in irritation? OR maybe it was embarrassment because his hot air kicked on suddenly when it was like eighty degrees outside. "Shut up squishy!" And then he was muttering several very colorful curse words through his speakers. Yup definitely embarrassed.

A smirk pulled at her lips as her awkwardness faded away just a little bit. Surprisingly. She loosened up just a little bit in her seat, not too much because she still didn't trust him or any of the others completely, but enough that he probably noticed it. The urge to rub his slightly less afthole-like moment in his face plates was strong, but once again the fear of being tossed from the vehicle was stronger. "Well uh...if it makes you feel any better...I won't tell anyone that you joked with me. Well I don't talk to others much anyways so that won't be hard." Her thoughts turned slightly darker when thinking about her lack of social skills in regards to the bots, and even other people. Well she wasn't technically a human so she guessed that those feelings of awkwardness were as easy to explain as the feelings of awkwardness that she felt for the Autobots.

His alt mode shook with the grunt that came through his speakers. Other than that he didn't answer her, or speak to her again until they pulled up in front of her work place 'Saunder's detailing'. "Alright squishy I'll be around keeping an optic on things until you're done. But if for some reason I get called to patrol Sides will come and get you instead."

The door was opened for her and she climbed out. "Uhh thanks Sunny...er Sunstreaker." She mumbled awkwardly before shutting his door and walking into her work place. With her back turned she almost, almost thought she heard him rumble a 'you're welcome', but she must have been going on too little sleep because Sunstreaker didn't do pleasantries.

"Ahh Lilah! I've got a couple paint jobs that I need your special touch for!" Mr. Saunders called out when she walked in.

She awkwardly waved back to his tall balding frame as she bypassed him and dropped her things off in her locker and retrieved her work equipment whilst waving a hello to the other people who worked there. Most didn't wave back because she was well known as a freak and a shut in, but a few of them did. One who did was a tall boy who was a few years older than her named Skylar.

But when he waved at her she scowled slightly and ducked her head down. Skylar thought of himself as a real ladies man with his tall dark hair, deep blue eyes, perfect aristocratic face, and perfect frame. And unfortunately for her he liked to make her awkward existence even more awkward, and so far no angry remarks on her part had dissuaded him. And she didn't want to resort to physical violence seeing as how she could break all of his ribs with a single weak punch, which would get her fired in the end. Not to mention that if the government got wind of her 'strength' she'd probably get hauled in for testing. As it stood right now with Galloway, she was pretty sure that was what his name was, stalking around base bitching about alien weapons and technology it wouldn't be good. At least she was being kept a secret from him so far, for obvious reasons, for if the government did find out about her she could kiss her freedom goodbye.

So she did what a smart girl would do, she raised her right hand and gave him a one fingered salute before she stalked into the back to do her work for the day. She could still feel Sunny's aura close by thanks to her sensory skills, and it did bring her just a little bit of comfort. He would be there keeping an optic on things out there, while she had to worry about not killing certain people in here.

* * *

><p>Sideswipe's aura approached their location at the end of her shift when she was changing back out of her work suit and back into her jacket and gloves. Today had been a long day for her between painting an old 69 Mustang Boss 429 which was one of the rarest and valuable cars today, detailing it, and painting a half dozen other cars. So she was pretty weary by this point. Weary and hungry.<p>

That was why she hurried to get her stuff out of her locker so that she could make a quick escape from the passes that she was sure Skylar would make. She made a hasty retreat out the door, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's forms sitting a little ways down the road waiting for her. She made to sprint like an Olympic gold medalist to Sideswipe's passenger door when a large meaty arm was slung around her shoulder. Slag! And she had thought that she had time to make a quick getaway.

"Skylar get your arm off of me." She bit out and politely, stress on the word politely, shoved his arm off of her.

Skylar offered her a charming grin, or what he thought was a charming grin, but actually made it look like he was constipated or something... "Aww come on Lily! You know my offer still stands right?"

"Yeah and I'm still not interested! And stop calling me Lily!" She backed away from his advance peering over her shoulder to judge the distance to Sideswipe's passenger door so that she could at least make her speed look human... It was such a chore some days, to make your abilities look like less than they were. If she didn't have to she could have already been to Sideswipe's door in an astrosecond.

"Aww come on Lily! Let me take you out for dinner! I'm sure that I could show you a veeeeery good time." He eyed her entire body lustfully.

And it made her skin crawl! Ugh he was so disgusting! One thing that pissed her off was when people didn't know how to take no for an answer! "I SAID NO! DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT NO MEANS? GET LOST!"

"No actually means yes Lily, well when it comes to women that I want. And I won't stop until I get you and every other girl I want." He made a move to grab her once more only to be stopped when a large hand slammed down on his wrist.

Eyes widening in surprise when she realized that it was Sunstreaker's holoform that had come to her rescue, er that it was Sunstreaker who had come to her rescue... Her jaw actually dropped at the deadly look in the tall blonde's optics.

"When a lady says no that means no you filthy piece of slag," Sunstreaker gritted out.

A second form came around from her left side and slung an arm over her shoulder. "You okay sweetspark? Was this guy giving you trouble?" Sideswipe sneered at Skylar then turned to her as if he deemed Skylar of no importance. He turned her around and led her back to his alt mode opening the passenger door for her so that she could climb in. His holoform came around to the driver's side and hopped in to keep up appearances even though he deactivated it as soon as the door shut.

Sunny...er Sunstreaker's holoform stalked back to his alt mode leaving Skylar somehow sprawled on the ground near the door to the detailing shop.

She snorted out a laugh and shook her head. Maybe having his aft whooped by an alien robot in disguise would teach him? No probably not, but it was amusing as slag to see the player lying dazed on the ground. "I'll have to thank Sunstreaker for that later."

"You and me both," Sideswipe muttered as his engine kicked on and he pulled out of his parking spot. "So where to next? Back to the base or did you need to go somewhere else?"

"Ummm I need to go to the store real quick first. You know where Walmart is right?"

"What's a Walmart?" Sideswipe asked in confusion.

She smacked her forehead in defeat at the absolutely clueless tone. "Oh Sideswipe...let me drive real quick."

"Why?" Another clueless and confused tone.

"So that I can get us to the store." Since he was obviously conveniently forgetting that he could look up what and where Walmart was on the internet. "Walmart...walmart..." Sideswipe muttered to himself quietly.

Why had she been stuck with such a...goofball? She still didn't 'like' him and Sunstreaker per se, but she didn't hate either of them, nor did she hate the other Autobots. But some days she just wondered if some of their processors were a little screwy or something, because there was no way that Sideswipe could forget or overlook the fact that he was practically a giant super computer. At this rate escaping would be easy for her to do once she figured out where she was going to go.

"OH I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

The sudden exclamation had her slamming her hands over her ears to block out the extremely loud noise. "Ow. Could you keep it down Sideswipe?"

"Oh sorry Lil! For an astrosecond I overlooked the fact that I could connect to the internet from here." Need she say more? Could she now rest her case? "It looks like there's a Walmart approximately three miles from here."

"Yeah I know."

At that moment another voice came through the speakers surprising her. "Ignore him Squishy, he's a dumbaft," Sunstreaker commented dryly.

"Hey I am not a dumbaft!" Sideswipe protested with an obviously overdone dramatic tone of voice. "I was just too irritated over that organic's actions earlier that I conveniently forgot all about the internet."

"Yeah and I'll paint myself puke green tomorrow."

While the two bickered back and forth good naturedly she thought back to her 'friends'. The ones that she had left behind to protect them. Estellise, Demetri, Jezzebelle, Annabelle, and Miata... They had never been able to talk about things so unimportant, so easy going or pleasant. What would they think if they saw her now? Sitting in one of their proclaimed 'mortal enemies'? They did not share her acceptance of the Cybertronians; they hated and despised them because of what they had gone through. And they had never understood her ability to overlook these things in regards to certain bots. If they could see her they would be angry at her, well besides Miata and Demetri maybe.

The memories caused the tight wall she had built around her spark to waver and the deep ingrained pain to slightly leak out. For just a klik her outside visage faltered and wavered causing the two bickering twins to go silent. But she didn't even realize it over the ringing in her ears, or the hot tears welling in her eyes. And chances are that she wouldn't have realized anything if it hadn't been for a soft caress on her cheek.

Everything snapped back into place, the barrier locking her emotions in place was quickly thrown back up to preserve herself, and tears were hastily blinked away. She took several deep breaths to calm herself down before opening her eyes and meeting Sideswipe's holoform's dark blue ones. "Yeah?" Her voice was scratchy and she swallowed heavily to try and clear it. How could she have almost lost it around others? And over something so stupid as memories that she had long since locked away.

"You were crying." Sideswipe pointed out gently.

"No I wasn't." She defended herself firmly. No she hadn't been crying! She had only wanted to cry! There was a difference! There was a gentle touch on her cheek and then Sideswipe's servo was right in front of her eyes with moisture gathered on his digit.

She expected him to make fun of her or laugh at her, anyone else would have lived to see her suffering visibly like this. But he didn't do anything more than wipe her cheeks off with his shirt to erase the evidence. "I won't tell anyone, and neither will Sunny."

Her door was opened and another set of servos helped her from the car. "Consider it payment for the promise you made me earlier squishy." Sunstreaker muttered gruffly.

"Shut up Sunnyboy." She shot back half-heartedly. It lacked the usual bite that it had when she really was irritated and both of them could see and hear that. She could see it in their optics, those dark blues that in so many ways reminded of her Moondancer's, not by color, but by what she could see shining so deep in their depths. Suffering, loneliness, sadness...just like her own eyes. She hated to admit that she felt that pull, that she had felt that pull from the start even if she was fighting it. And she was fighting it because getting attached only caused pain and she had enough pain to deal with already. Not only that, but neither of them would understand why she was doing the things that she was doing. They wouldn't feel the similarities between them and an...abomination, or better way to describe it is that they wouldn't admit to feeling them. So she didn't reach out, she kept her sensory skills dulled as much as possible, and she ignored every part of her spark screaming to open up. Because opening up left you vulnerable...and she was done being vulnerable.

She shrugged Sunstreaker off as soon as the revelation came to her. "I'm fine." By now she had realized that they had arrived at the store sometime during her little episode. She was irritated at herself all over again for being so absorbed in herself that she hadn't realized it! "I'll be back out in a few kliks or so." She stomped away from their alt modes without waiting for one of them to answer her. She just...needed space to figure out what the pit she was doing with her life!

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

Both he and Sunny watched their little femme stomp away from them and into the large building called 'Walmart'. Something was wrong with her and he desperately wanted to know what it was that had made her leak from her optics. He knew what crying was, only in Cybertronian terms it was called leaking. But the reasons for it happening were still the same, when one was sad or hurting over something they leaked. And she had been hurting over something, he could have told somebot else that even without her leaking.

**'What do you think is wrong with her Sunny?'** He murmured over the bond, though he didn't know whether to expect an answer from his brother or not. Sunny still wasn't completely for their new duty and he knew that.

As expected Sunny stayed silent, just staring at the door where Lil had disappeared into. His dark blue optics betrayed no inward emotions and he had staunched the bond down so that he could have some time to think to himself.

He sighed and got out so that he could lean against the hood of his alt mode. If Sunny didn't want to answer him he wouldn't force it, but an answer would be nice. The bond was kept wide open on his side so that his twin could feel that irritation and concern as well as the thoughts plaguing his processor. Other than that he kept quiet and eventually he fell into his own thoughts since Sunny wasn't going to answer him.

**'She's remembering.'**

His helm whipped to the side in surprise. **'D-did you just answer my question?'**

Sunny scowled at him and smacked him upside the helm.** 'I do answer you sometimes Sides! I just didn't know what to say to you when you first asked!'** Sunny huffed and turned away from him to continue his stake out of the door. **'Memories. She's remembering something that causes her pain. Probably about her creators or some slag.'**

**'She never knew them.'**

Surprise flashed through the bond along with a grudging understanding. **'So she's like us in that way isn't she?'**

**'Yeah...but her siblings were killed when she was young so she didn't luck out like we did. At least we've always had one another right?'** Having Sunny around to take some of the pain on had kept him from completely succumbing to the darkness, to know that one bot would never give up on him, as he had done for his brother as well. If they hadn't had that bond he didn't know where they would be today... Where he would be today.

**'Maybe she's thinking about her brothers and sisters?'** Sunny offered quietly. He didn't want to feel a connection to their 'charge', he didn't want to come to care about her as more than a passing job.

That was what he felt from his brother, all the things that he didn't want were at the forefront of his processor, he was ignoring what his spark was already telling him. And it was telling him quite clearly that his twin was already more attached to Lilah than he would ever admit to. And he hated it, hated himself for it even if he didn't realize why he was so angry at himself. To get attached was just stupid to Sunny, a fool's choice. **'It isn't stupid to find companionship where you can. When are you gonna realize that Sunny?'**

Sunny merely grunted and ignored him not deeming the question important enough to answer. The rolling and building emotions were still warring with one another inside of him, as they would probably be for some time to come still. Words and feelings were hard for Sunny to come to terms with.

But he would wait. He always had waited for Sunny's rather slow emotional grasp of himself to clear itself out. This time would be no different he was sure. Now if only they didn't have to deal with a femme who may be more emotionally challenged then Sunny was...That was going to be the real challenge because she was a shot in the dark to him since he couldn't sense her emotions like he could his twin's.

**'Good luck Sides.'**

**'Frag you Sunny!'**

**'No thanks bro. I know that everybot wants me but that would just be weird...'**

He gaped at his twin in open disgust. **'Sunny that is so nasty! How can you even say slag like that?'** A shudder went through his frame, both frames for good measure. Bad mental images! Bad mental images! He would've purged for good measure if Lilah hadn't walked out of the store at that moment and come in their direction. All feelings of disgust momentarily fled as he perked up upon her approach.

Half way to them however she froze in the middle of the parking lot.

**'What is she doing?'** Sunny's tone was hinting at annoyance again.

Before he could tell his brother that he didn't know what she was doing Lilah whipped around, bags dropping to the ground when astroseconds later the sound of screeching tires flooded through the parking lot.

He disabled his holoform and peeled out of his parking spot as soon as the sound registered in his audio receptors, shooting around the cars littering the parking lot to get to her.

**'It's that fragger Bonecrusher again!'** Sunny growled when Bonecrusher's Buffalo mine clearing alt mode came screeching around the side of the building.

**'Come on! Move! Move! Aww slag it!'** When he couldn't get around the fragging cars, whose drivers were too busy watching Lilah to worry about getting run over to move their afts, he just cursed and shifted to bipedal mode so that he could leap over the gathered vehicles.

Bonecrusher shifted to bipedal mode at the same time and rushed Lilah again like he had the day that they had first met her. Only this time Lilah didn't shoot an energy ball at him, she just ducked and rolled out of the way to avoid being scooped up by the con.

He aimed his chest blasters at Bonecrusher and fired at the big con when he took off after Lilah as she streaked down the parking lot, just slightly faster than a normal human would be able to, using cars and other vehicles to shield herself from view. Several of his blasts grazed his target, but did not deter his pursuit.

And the humans and vehicles all over the place were impeding his ability to just zoom around the parking lot to get to her! He cursed and forced his way past a red ford explorer as he kept firing at Bonecrusher with Sunny doing the same, just from the opposite end of the parking lot.

**'Fragging squishies are all over the place! Ugh one just touched my pede! When this is over I'm never coming to a store again!'**

He swerved around another car and into a clear part of the parking lot. "FINALLY!" He sped up and raced down the clear expanse of pavement firing blaster shot after blaster shot at Bonecrusher's back and limbs as the big con tossed vehicles aside like they were little more than useless metal scraps. His spark was racing! Why wasn't she fighting back like he knew that she could?! Did she want to get captured?

From his peripheral vision he saw Sunny's golden form racing down on Bonecrusher's opposite side.** 'You take him from the front and I'll set you up for a takedown from the back. Sound good?'** Feelings of acceptance flowed into him instead of words.

He closed in on Bonecrusher as the large con finally grabbed a hold of Lilah and dangled her in the air precariously. "Such an ugly squishy...when Starscream's done using you I want to kill you. Maybe I'll rip your skin off and make you watch it." Bonecrusher sneered down at her furious face.

At that moment he skidded across the pavement at the same time that Sunny lunged for Bonecrusher's chassis, slamming his wheeled pede into the junction of the big con's ankle joint to off balance him. Bonecrusher snarled in surprise as Sunny tackled him from the front sending both of them slamming into the ground.

He moved to Bonecrusher's helm quickly and activated his retractable sword before slamming it down into the con's helm in the same move. The frame tensed and spasmed as all of the neural nodes lit on fire simultaneously as the spark gave out, then finally stilled when his spark finally died completely.

He retracted his sword and took a small step back. "Where's Lilah?" He asked when he didn't see her on the ground anywhere.

A muffled sound came from down near Bonecrusher's servo which was lifted up revealing a very displeased femme. "The slag is this bot's problem?!" She tossed the servo aside and dusted herself off.

"It's Bonecrusher squishy, he hates everything...maybe even himself." Sunny grumbled.

Lilah only glared at Sunny for his remark, she started in surprise when he grabbed her and picked her up so that he could look her over for injuries. "Umm what are you doing?"

"Making sure that you aren't hurt." She didn't appear to have anything more than a few superficial cuts and perhaps some spots that would bruise, then again his medical scans weren't nearly as good as Ratchet's so he would take her there just to be safe when they got back. Once he was satisfied that she would make it back to the base in one piece he pressed her to his chassis so that he could shift into alt mode without crushing her.

"Hey my bags!" She protested.

"Hold your guns femme! Primus give me an astrosecond to back up!" Switching into reverse, grumbling about difficult femmes, and reminding Sunny to com Optimus to let him know what happened, he backed up so that she could pop his door open and grab her discarded bags from the ground.

**'Optimus said that he's sending Lennox and Epps along with Ironhide to take care of Bonecrusher's frame and to cover up the incident.'**

That only made him feel a little bit better, seeing as how it still didn't tell them why the cons were after Lilah short of her being a hybrid. But even then there was still something that didn't sit right with him about the whole thing. What did a bunch of Decepticons want a hybrid so badly for? Maybe Ratchet would have some insight for them on the matter? Yeah he would have to ask him when they got back. They had to know why they were protecting her, and he meant the real reason why.

* * *

><p>(Lil's POV)<p>

After being subjected to another one of Ratchet's scans, not that she needed it; she was forced to sit through a series of inquiries from Sideswipe. Not only Sideswipe, but Sunstreaker was curious as well about why she was being targeted so fiercely, even Optimus had come seeking answers. Answers that she was terrified to reveal. Because there was more than one reason for their desire to obtain her. Her sensory abilities were extraordinary, no one could best her at intel gathering or tracking, short of maybe Soundwave. Add that to the fact that in terms of physical strength, and potency of her aura and therefore her strength was second to no other hybrid. There was a hierarchy chain to her kind, until you reached the top and found her.

But that wasn't really why they were after her, well maybe the sensory skills made sense. But it was...the other factor that made her kind so sought after by bots. No she wasn't going to even let herself think for a second that she would allow that to happen. No bot was going to do that to her again. That was why when they all looked at her for answers, seeing as how Ratchet was as in the dark as they were, she tensed and looked at anything but them.

Her skin was already crawling under the intense scrutiny she was receiving. They knew that she knew why the cons were after her, even if she did deny that when they first met. In reality that had all been pure reflex, a defensive measure on her part. If you acted clueless you were more likely to be left alone when you had no information to impart. But her act hadn't fooled Optimus, or maybe even Ratchet from the start, and now it wasn't fooling anyone.

"You don't trust us."

She didn't need to look at Optimus to see that he was now kneeling down beside the berth that she had been placed upon. Nor did she need to look into his optics to see the hurt that those words garnered. Because her sensory skills more then picked up on his mental processes and internal state, though she consciously did not allow them to prod at his aura. "Did you expect me to?" She asked instead of answering him.

"I know that after what you have been through it must be difficult to trust our kind, but you must try. How can we protect you if we do not even know why we are protecting you?"

"Then don't." She finally looked at him with cold eyes. "I never asked you to look after me! That was your choice! And it wasn't even a necessary choice! No one protects me because I protect myself! I don't need you! I don't need them!" She pointed at the twins and ignored the hurt that she felt radiating from both of them, and from herself. "It doesn't matter what you do! Whether you protect me or not doesn't matter! Because they can get what they need from the others as well! They just need me to find them and I'm not going to do that! Not for you and not for anyone else!"

"Why would they need your help to find the others? Soundwave is the best at gathering intel, surely he can find them?" Ratchet commented gruffly.

"No he can't! If he could then they would have found them already!" Primus! They were so clueless!

"How do you figure he cannot find them?" Optimus pressed with interest.

"Because," She sneered at him in mounting rage and aggravation. "They are part human, that means that their electrical impulses function differently than yours, that also means that if they are in heavily populated areas the signal is harder to sense. Think of it like...when a wounded animal hides in the center of the herd so that the predator can't see or smell it. That's what it's like."

"And you can find them? How can you when Soundwave can't?"

"Because Soundwave's a pussy!" She answered Ratchet's question which caused the bots gathered to look at her with wide optics. "His sensory skills are slag compared to mine! I sensed that slaggin bastard far before he even entered the atmosphere!"

"But you didn't sense Bonecrusher until he was pretty close to you," Sunstreaker pointed out.

"Yeah because he was using a high level dampener," she pointed out. "And you didn't sense him at all until you heard him." Her comment earned her a glare from Sunstreaker, to which she just lifted her chin defiantly back. "Dampeners usually allow a bot to remain completely undetected, but I can sense the radiation and electrical impulses even when a bot is using a dampener. My specialties are precognitive sensory skills, and wide ranged sensory skills, along with empathic sensory skills." Fraggit why was she explaining this when she had told herself that she wasn't going to? Well it was this or 'that', and she sure as slag wasn't going to tell them about that. "Precognitive sensory allows me to perceive an aura from a lesser distance than the wide ranged sensor skill; however it's invaluable in a fight. Using precognitive sensory I can trace the electrical impulses directly from the spark to wherever they settle be it an arm or a leg, electrical impulses travel to certain parts of the body before they are even used. With my sensory skills I can see the flow and accurately predict a bot's or human's moves."

Once again Ratchet looked thoroughly fascinated as did the rest of them. "Is it a skill that you can turn on and off at will?"

"Yeah I can. In fact most of the time I keep it off so that I don't overwhelm myself with all of the auras passing by, I do the same with my other sensory skills as well." Was it suddenly very hot in the room? Because she was sweating like a stuffed pig and it wasn't because she was being dishonest. It was probably all of the attention she was garnering from the large forms sharing her space. "The wide ranged sensory skill is similar to the precognitive skill, only this skill allows me to locate auras from greater distances and tap into their mental processes, or ascertain their state of being. Using this skill I can even tell what an enemy is thinking to a certain degree, and combining it with my empathic abilities I can more accurately predict an opponent's mental processes. It's more useful for intel gathering and tracking then it is for battle, though using it I can somewhat tweak a bot's aura to alter their movements slightly. Which I was doing with Bonecrusher earlier to keep him from missing when he went to grab me."

"Fascinating."

Oh primus! If Ratchet said fascinating one more time she was going to zap him senseless. "Yeah fascinating... The others don't have sensory skills as sharp as mine, but all of us can do it to a certain degree in terms of being able to sense the locations of auras. Well if they aren't dampened that is."

"So are your offensive skills identical?"

Well color her surprised! Sunstreaker was actually being an active participant in the conversation. Although she could tell that he was reluctant to talk at all, and he was irritated with the whole situation for some reason. Because she could tell what he was thinking... Well that was what she gathered by tapping into his aura. "More or less. We're ranked with a number based on skill and overall power, each area is ranked with a letter ranging from E, to S. E being the lowest, and S being as high as you can be. The ranked areas are the size and strength of our auras, agility, muscular strength, perception, and leadership or strategizing skills. We're tested and given a letter based on the overall strength of each skill, then we were numbered and restrained based on how dangerous we were."

"So you are...?" All of them leaned closer to hear what she had to say.

Meeting their optics all squarely she muttered. "I was ranked number one, and the strongest hybrid ever to be created."

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><p>Cliffy! Please R&amp;R! And if you are wondering some ideas from this have been based off of the anime Claymore. I highly suggest that you watch it because it's awesome! See ya next time!<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

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><p>Here are some more reviews. Bee4ever-Yeah I know Sunny's like arrrgh I wish I could hate you lol! DarkshadowXsunny-sides-Thanks I'm glad you like it! SunstreakersSquishy2.0-You're welcome! I liked them a lot in the old cartoons as well! And Sides is still hilarious in the movies! amberreed69-Thanks! Answerthecall-I will! And thanks! Well I do not own Transformers!<p>

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><p>Silence. You could hear a pin drop on a pillowcase from across the room. None of the bots gathered had uttered a single word since she had told them that she was in fact the strongest hybrid ever created. Hard to believe she was sure, but it was true.<p>

The quiet started getting to her relatively quickly given the circumstances causing her to start shifting around in her spot. Usually she did ok with quiet, but not when she couldn't tell what they were thinking after what she had just said. It was only serving to freak her out quite a bit.

The movement caught Optimus's optics snapping him out of the...whatever it was that he was doing in his own helm. He offered her a reassuring smile though he made no other move to get close to her, and for that she was thankful. "That is quite the surprise."

"Yeah," She muttered awkwardly. What else could she say to him? She knew that she was nothing super special to look at, and she didn't have an aura that demanded respect or anything like that. If she hadn't been tested extensively, by herself, and against the others, she would have thought that she was actually the weakest. But she wasn't. She had beaten the rest of them in overall performance soundly.

"How are you graded exactly? You did mention that you were given a letter based on overall performance in that skill. How exactly does the grading process work?" Ratchet snapped out of the quiet stupor he had been in and turned back to the conversation again.

"It's pretty straight forward Ratchet." She sighed and shifted to sit cross legged to get more comfortable for the explanation process. "Ok so we're tested on aura strength first and graded on that, from there we simply move down the list and receive a grade based on performance. For agility we are graded on how fast we can complete a mile run, let's just put it this way, a human gets an A in school for completing the run in 5-6 minutes right?" When they all nodded she smirked and shrugged her shoulders. "Well to receive an S rank for us we need to do it in under thirty seconds. I received an S in that area, along with two of the others. Next was muscular strength, which consisted of a ratio test of how much weight could be lifted, how straining it was, and how long it could be held given your body size and mass. I scored an S in that as well. Next was perception. For this test the subject is placed in a large forested area, blocked off to prevent escape of course, and several drone bots are released into the area as well. For this test you must locate each one based completely on your perception skills and depending on how fast you do it you are graded either higher or lower. I scored a SS in this field. And last was leadership or strategizing which I scored an A in. It's mostly just showing strategizing skills in data pad simulators that they set up for us. I scored second highest in that. But overall I scored higher than the others by far."

She didn't know what to expect from them at this point. Laughter, mocking, fear, disdain? When she had pretty much told them that she was far more dangerous than they had expected, one expected these things. But nothing like that happened, and she waited for several long kliks for one of them to pull a blaster on her, or attempt to restrain her. Nothing happened. They just stared at her, or grinned at her in Sideswipe's case. For a split klik she wondered vaguely, how one bot could be so fragging happy all the time. And as soon as she realized that she was staring at him again, and that she was also getting off topic she blushed, which mortified her, and turned away. What was wrong with her lately? It was like she was getting almost...comfortable with them!

Her mouth fell open and snapped shut several times as she worked up the courage to say something to them. Anything at all! "I...I'm not going to tell you where they are...they wouldn't agree to help you or even talk to you anyways. They're not as...accepting or willing to forget as I am."

If they could see her where she was, they would probably be questioning her mental stability or something. Well after they assaulted the base to try and 'free' her from what they would perceive as her 'captors'. They had never been able to forget, never able to place blame where it truly deserved to go. They held the entire species responsible for what 'they' had done, and in some of their cases there had been resentment because she had bonded to one of them. Estellise had never been able to forgive her for what she had seen as a betrayal, even though she had not ousted her. There had been trust issues between them from that point on. And all the love that they held for one another had not changed that so far.

"So they don't like us?" The image of Sunstreaker scowling while he asked that question had her looking over at him, and he was indeed scowling just like she had thought he would be.

She giggled so softly that the sound was barely there. "No not really. In their defense they were lab rats to the early cons for centuries so it can't really be helped. And in your defense, it wasn't actually any of you that did it. But to them it isn't going to matter, they'll still feel fear when around you and there's nothing that I can really do short of forcing their emotional states to change, which is immoral and wrong might I add. So it's just better that they stay wherever they are for now. Safe and hidden from Soundwave and Starscream."

And far far away from her... The last bit caused a sliver of pain to encompass her spark. Oh how she fragging missed those idiots! Some days she even wondered what she had been thinking when she left them behind... But when she thought about her special abilities she knew that her departure was for the best. This way she could draw the cons to herself and away from the others by creating disturbances every so often. A small surge of electrical energy here, a destroyed con there... Yeah her decision had ensured that she was alone, but it had also ensured that they were safe. So she couldn't hate it completely, she always had been antisocial anyways.

"Look that's all I really know." She murmured quietly but she knew that with their overly sensitive audio receptors they would hear it. "I'm going back to my room now..." Without waiting for a response she was up and jumping down the tall berth onto the floor with fluid grace. As soon as her feet touched the floor again she was gone, speed walking much faster than most humans ran, to her room so that she could lock herself in and be antisocial for a bit.

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

Several more days had passed since the second discussion with Lilah. And in that time he had learned several things about her. It seemed that the little femme was much more complex than he had given her credit for. In his experience with Bee's squishies they were relatively straight forward. Mechs usually obsessed with interfacing, and sports, maybe cars. And femmes obsessed over their looks, clothes, face paints...and other things. But this femme was completely different from anything else that he had seen before, probably because she was Cybertronian as well.

She never obsessed over what she looked like, or what she was wearing, or whether her face was painted up to make her look better. As one who obsessed over his own good looks nearly constantly it was completely...insane to him that she didn't seem to really care. And when he asked his twin about it Sides merely said that she didn't need to obsess over her looks because she was already too pretty as it is. He only sneered at his twin whenever this was said because no bot could ever not care about their looks enough. At least in his processor.

He was thinking over all of these things while he spent his day watching over her again. Sides had demanded it of him, a day for all three of them to spend time together to 'bond' or whatever he called it. His brother was...weird. Mostly because he was still under the impression that he, Sunstreaker, liked the little femme. Which was wrong. He did not like any bot besides his brother, and sadly the little femme was never going to be in that group.

So he sat a ways back in the small clearing located several miles from base that Sides had taken them to, and watched his brother and their charge pussy pede around one another. Sides was making every attempt that he could to get close to Lilah, but she was still skittish around them. For the thousandth and sixth time since the day she had explained her special skills to them, he wondered why she was so nervous around them.

It was like she danced around Sides before Sides even made a move towards her, like she just knew when he was going to do something and she shifted to prevent his servos from touching her. She didn't look disgusted with him, just nervous. Sometimes he had to wonder if it was all because Sides was a bot, or because she acted like that around humans as well.

"Come on Lil! I've carried you loads of times before!" Sides whined pitifully as she once again dodged his servo.

Lilah shuffled back away from him and looked down at her feet. "Yeah but...I'm still not used to it. I don't like being touched," she muttered. Another piece of information to be examined later, because he was pretty sure that humans thrived off of their sense of touch. Then again she was only half human, but even Cybertronians enjoyed touching one another. Why did other bots think that he hit Sides all the time?

Sides' helm snapped in his direction to shoot him a heated glare. "Maybe I should show my affection like that too SUNNY!"

The added emphasis on his nickname made him scowl at his twin warningly. "Try it and I might just forget that we're twins and offline you." Not a pleasant idea since he would offline as well without another spark to stabilize what remained of his. But hey he could threaten right?

Sides snorted and plopped down onto his aft with one servo held out for the skittish femme near him, and one pointing at him. "One day you will realize that I am too awesome to be offlined! And one day you will realize that I was right about everything!" He declared dramatically.

Lilah turned and gave him a look that looked to be a question, 'umm is your brother fragging insane?' Then she eyed Sides' servo warily before looking back to the trees around them, then back at him again, and finally to rest on the bright red servo being offered to her still.

"Primus squishy just get on his servo already!" He growled out when Sides started up that incessant whining again! Man that sound just grated on his nodes like one would not believe!

In response she only huffed and slowly reached for Sides' servo, sliding her gloved digits over his smooth metal one inch my painstaking inch until her servo was completely laid out in the center of Sides'.

It was the first time that she had really instigated physical contact with one of them besides the grudging contact with them when they picked her up, or when she was in their alt modes. Sure there had been that day when she had stumbled into his pede when Bee had startled her, but at the time it was more likely that she hadn't even really realized that she was touching him. Whatever had happened to her must have been real bad to make her still fear physical contact when they had shown her, grudgingly on his part, that not all contact was bad.

He scowled at the two who were technically holding servos, and in Sides case looking like a fragging love-struck sparkling. No he looked like he had just been recognized by Primus himself as being the single most annoying mech in the universe, which he was sure was secretly one of his twin's goals. For whatever reason seeing them made him uncomfortable. Through the bond he could feel the soft caress from the touch on his own servo, and as much as he wanted to hate it, he couldn't because it felt ok. And he hated admitting that her touch didn't bother him as much as anybot else's would have. What was wrong with him?

The scowl pulling at his mouth plates darkened even more when he realized that the only reason he disliked the contact at all was because of his own reservations on squishies, and not that he even disliked Lilah himself. It was the fact that he didn't want any attachments to be formed between himself and any earth being, which she was even if she was half of one of them. So he was pushing her away not because she had done something to truly make him hate her, well besides their first meeting, which he admitted that he still had some anger over but not nearly as much as he expected, but because he wanted to dislike her and couldn't. So he was mad at her because he really did like her, as much as he could anyways, when he didn't want to like her at all. So in a way he should be mad at himself and not her.

A feeling of smugness and mocking flowed into his spark, and not his own either. His optics met Sides' smug shining optics through narrowed ones of his own. So he had been listening to his internal debate? Well if he mentioned it to anyone he was going to murder him!

Sides shifted nervously at the death threat, and the seriousness of it, and looked away from him to Lilah who was now sitting rigidly in his servo. "Aww relax sweetspark! Sitting in my servo isn't that bad right?"

Lilah gave him a dead serious look and muttered. "By sitting in your servo I'm practically letting you feel my aft up." She deadpanned.

He snorted a laugh at his twin's sputtering. "Not bad Lilah."

Both of them snapped their helms in his direction and gaped at him openly. "D-did you just call me by my name?"

"Did you just call her Lilah?!"

He scowled at both of them before reluctantly getting up and taking a seat next to them. "Yeah I did. I thought that you wanted to be called by your name and not by Squishy?"

"I do." She admitted quietly. Shifting in Sides' servo she moved to dangle her legs over the edge of his palm so that she was able to see both of them more clearly. It was obvious that she was still nervous to be touching his brother at all from the stiff set of her shoulders.

"Well then what's the big deal?" Because he honestly didn't see a reason for her to be so shocked over it.

"Because you always call her squishy," Sides pointed out. "And you say that you hate her guts anyways," he pointed out again with a smug smirk this time.

He balled his servo and thumped Sides in the back of the helm with it hearing a satisfying bam when his fist dented the metal. "I never said that I hated her guts, just that I didn't like her. Which wasn't a lie." He hastily added to cover himself up. From the scowl he received from Lilah he knew that it worked, Sides was a different story altogether.

Damn slagger just gave him the 'look' and smiled innocently at him. "Eh don't worry about him Lil, he does like you. Trust me if he didn't you'd have already been stepped on long ago."

"Shut up Sides! Maybe I should step on her right now just to show you how serious I am!" He was literally five astroseconds away from beating Sides helm in until he had to be raised all over again from a sparkling mentality. He realized that threatening to step on her probably wasn't a good idea when she scowled at him angrily. His mouth fell open and snapped shut three times before he huffed and turned away. Just because he admitted that he liked her didn't mean that he was going to start apologizing to her for saying what was on his processor. He didn't even apologize to Sideswipe when he did something wrong.

Sides quickly jumped in and acted as the peacekeeper to prevent a fight between them. "He was just talking slag Lil. And even if he wasn't I wouldn't let him step on you."

"Sure." Her eyes fell to the ground below before she pushed herself off of her perch and fell into a crouch when she landed.

Sides glared death at him and made to follow her, but he had both of them stopping in their tracks, literally on her part, when he grabbed her by the shirt and dangled her in front of his optics. Her's met his in a fierce glare causing him to snort. "I'm not intimidated by that glare Lilah. But for what it's worth I won't step on you for it...or for any other reason." He added the last part quietly.

"Sure you won't. I thought that Sunstreaker didn't say anything that he didn't mean? And I'm pretty sure that you told me that you would stomp me after we first met!" She shot back with distrust.

He raised an optic ridge at her. "I did say that, and at the time I would have simply stepped on you because I could. But I can't step on you now because of Optimus."

Sides gave him a look that said, 'can't you at least be honest with yourself for once?'

He grunted and placed her on his servo. "Look I'm not gonna step on you...cause Sides is attached to you. I don't really like you but I won't take his new friend from him." Yeah that sounded like a good reason and excuse! And a believable one at that because he wouldn't really do anything to hurt his twin. Not really anyways... He clamped down on the bond so that Sides couldn't hear what he was thinking, or feel what he was feeling. Because he would never live that down if Sides did find out. So he would keep it a secret, you know that he liked her and all.

Sides looked between the two of them with furrowed optics, as if he couldn't decide whether one was going to glitch slap the other, or in his case squish her between his servos. When none of that happened after several intense kliks he smiled brightly at the two of them. "Alright! Don't make me sing a song! Get along! Get along! Like I know you do!"

Lilah gave Sides a deadpan look. "Sideswipe that was...just...weird. Don't ever do it again."

"I agree with Red here Sides, don't ever sing again or I might murder you."

"Haters," Sides grumbled. His face suddenly brightened deviously. "Hey I know the perfect bonding activity that we can do with each other!"

Lilah blanched and shrunk into his servo. "Do I want to know?"

"PRANKS! Let's prank Galloway!"

"Sides...you're a genius." He smirked and placed Lilah over his spark so that he could shift to his alt mode without hurting her. Since Galloway had come to the base he had wanted to murder him, but that wasn't allowed, so pranking him would have to suffice. Now all they had to do was figure out what to do to him!

Galloway had come to the base he had wanted to murder him, but that wasn't allowed, so pranking him would have to suffice. Now all they had to do was figure out what to do to him!

* * *

><p>(Lil's POV)<p>

They sat around in her room with, her and the twins, Jazz, and the stupid twins Skids and Mudflap. Apparently Galloway was not liked at all on base, whatsoever. So several bots besides the twins had caught wind of what they were doing and come to offer their assistance. So they sat on her floor in holoform, Jazz's holoform being a relatively tall, dark man with dreadlocks and a white beater and loose jeans, and the stupid twins holoforms were two red headed males of average height and redneck looking outfits of plaid shirts and dirty jeans...and buck teeth.

At first she had snorted a laugh at the two of them earning her amused looks from the other three bots, but in her defense they looked like total goofballs. After her initial reaction she had sat quietly while Sides and Sunstreaker talked over some of the things that they had ideas about, but so far none of the other bots thought that shaving him bald was a particularly good idea since it could be considered assault, hanging him up by his underwear from a flag pole was tossed out right after that, as well as gluing him to the ceiling. Now they were all sitting around moaning about how stupid human laws were.

"What about replacing his shampoo with pink hair dye?" She suggested when the groaning started to get annoying. They all snapped their helms in her direction in surprise that she had spoken at all. "Yeah a pink haired political advisor? That'll really demand respect huh? All we have to do is get permanent hair dye which they do sell at Walmart."

"Yes! Aww slag why didn't I think of that?!" Sides exclaimed dramatically.

"Umm because you were leaning towards pranks that would inflict bodily harm maybe?" She trailed off causing him to pout at her.

Sunstreaker shrugged his holoform's shoulders in a careless manner. "Yeah well he deserves bodily harm. I'm still all for gluing him to a ceiling somewhere."

"Yeah and how would a human do that Sunstreaker? You have to make it look like a random prank that a human did, otherwise he's going to go all crazy on you guys again. And I don't think that you want to be kicked off the planet cause you pranked Galloway do you?" She hadn't actually met the man in person because she was actually being kept a secret from him for obvious reasons. So she had only seen him in passing once or twice when Sides or Sunstreaker had hidden her from him. "In your defense he's an afthole for real bro. I'd stick him to the roof buck naked and video tape him before selling it to the media. But I can't do that..."

Snickers and light laughter rolled through the group at that comment. "I like ya l'il lady. Dunno 'bout all the o'her bo's roun' here, but we gonna get along great," Jazz smirked at her.

"Ummm thanks Jazz." Her awkwardness reared its ugly head again at being the center of attention. She shifted away and curled in on herself just that much more, minutely, but they seemed to notice it because they turned back to the discussions.

"Ok so pink hair dye! Should we see if Bee and Sam can get that? And who's going to video tape him so that we can post it on the internet?"

"Umm I have a video camera that we can hook up into the vent in his bathroom...and I also think that one of us should break in when he showers and steal his clothes. I actually have a gag costume that I use to torment little kids around Easter..." When each of them gave her an odd look she blushed and got up to yank open the armoire that Sam's girlfriend had supplied her with. She sifted around until her fingers brushed across something soft and light pink, and she grinned and pulled it out for them to see. "See a pink bunny costume to go with his soon to be pink hair. And better yet! If we steal his clothes and leave this there he might not wear it anyways, so that means that he will have to walk through the corridors naked to get back to his room. So either way we get him in this, or we get him naked on camera. Oh and I have another handheld camcorder that we can use..."

Sunstreaker smirked at her as did every other bot in the room. "I like the way that you think Lilah."

"You'd be the first." She muttered in embarrassment. "So umm can one of you com Bee and ask him to get Sam and Mikaela to get the dye?" It was time to get this show on the road.

* * *

><p>Apparently it wasn't only bots that hated Galloway, Sam and Mikaela hated him as much as anybot else. She was surprised when they rushed to get her the items she needed, and raced to the base with Bee to get them to her. Pit both of them had run into her room panting with Bee right behind them.<p>

But their prompt response had allowed them to get this prank going ASAP! Sides and Sunstreaker had worked to put Redalert's cameras on an off-switch so that they could be shut off at the smallest signal from one of them. Once that was done she had snuck into Galloway's bathroom to set up his camera, while Mikaela and Sam dumped his shampoo out and replaced it with the hair dye.

Once that was all done she hit record and fled the bathroom with the two of them and met up with the other bots outside in the corridor. "Everything's ready." And none too soon because Galloway was getting out of a meeting with Optimus soon... "Alright park your alts in your rooms and go holoform ok?"

Each of them shifted down and raced off after giving her a shit eating grin. She raced around the corner and crouched down to wait with Sam and Mikaela, her bag's weight against her shoulder making her shift in excitement. She still wasn't comfortable around everybot else completely, but as long as she wasn't being touched she was okay.

After a klik or so the holoforms of the bots came sprinting around the corner in their direction with Sides and Sunstreaker at the front followed closely by Bee, and then Jazz, and then the twins who were bickering again. They slid around the corner next to her crowding her in between Sides and Sunstreaker's holoform bodies.

For an astrosecond she almost freaked out when not only the twins brushed against her, but Bee did as well. She had to force herself to stay calm and breathe through her nose slowly to combat the apprehension she was feeling.

A hand grabbed her's and squeezed it. Sideswipe's hand. She followed his arm all the way up to his face to see him looking at her in reassurance. Her body shifted a little bit closer to him as she grabbed his hand with both of hers and squeezed it back to ground herself. At least it seemed to help a little bit, and normally she would have questioned that, but there was no time for that because Galloway came sauntering around the corner at that same moment.

Sunstreaker gave Bee the signal so she handed over her costume and bag to the yellow scout. He grinned at her and disappeared around the corner to switch the clothing articles with one another. Mikaela and Sam snickered softly as she grabbed her camcorder from her jacket pocket and slipped the screen open and powered it on.

Bee came sprinting back around the corner with Galloway's clothes, boxers and all sticking out of the bag and dove back behind the safety of the corner.

"Did you get the dirty clothes too? And his cellphone?"

Bee nodded and held up her bag so that she could peek into it to make sure that he got everything. "Good job Bee." Now she slid forward on her stomach and pointed her camera at the door to Galloway's bathroom to get the perfect angle. She kicked her wide ranged sensory ability up a notch to get a good feel for anybot coming their way, as well as to keep an eye on Galloway's aura.

Sensing that there was no bot in close proximity to them she relaxed just slightly and giggled softly. Behind her she could clearly feel the electrical charges going through the bots, as well as Sam and Mikaela, she could keep an eye on them as well even if she had her back turned, that made her feel a little better.

Their pulses kept jumping in excitement and amusement, happiness, none of the dark violently quivering pulses that always preceded an act of violence. That should have reassured her that things were okay, and if that didn't their thought processes should have. Hurting her wasn't even anywhere near their minds, which were completely focused on this moment and getting back at Galloway. But her past experiences had taught her that trust HAD to be earned even if someone gave you a good first impression. And anybot could change; a bot that helped you could end up betraying you just as easily.

Call her paranoid, but if they felt and experienced what she had gone through they would understand her. She shrugged her worries off and focused back on Galloway's aura when it spiked in panic. Here we go! She could sense him fumbling to get out of the shower hitting his leg in the process...ouch. And then his aura spiked again, probably when he realized that all of his clothes were gone, even his underwear. And then there was rage when he no doubt saw her costume laying on the counter.

When the door to his bathroom opened up she just barely managed to hold in her laugh when the now pink haired man stumbled out of the bathroom in a light pink bunny suit... She scrambled back around the corner to avoid being seen after getting several kliks of good film to use.

As soon as her back hit the wall she choked out a broken laugh and bit her fist as her eyes started stinging with the tears that wanted to fall. Her camcorder was yanked out of her hand by Sunstreaker so that he could get his first look at Pink-bunny-hoppy-pants-Galloway.

The normally mean and nasty expression on his face melted away as he too choked out a laugh before handing the camcorder to Sides who also had to bite his fist to keep from losing it.

While they were passing the camera around she got another fix on Galloway's aura which was...coming straight towards them. "Shit! Run!" She whisper yelled before she jumped to her feet and took off running faster than Sam or Mikaela could ever hope to move. And in astroseconds she was several corridors over and safely hidden from view. From the other's auras they had managed to scatter before Galloway had found them, so she relaxed and switched her sensory skills off.

Breathing deeply through her nose in relief she turned and made to return to her room, only to run face first into a green metal leg. She stumbled back and shot wide eyes up to Ratchet who stood with an optic ridge raised at her. "Uhhh sorry."

Ratchet just brushed her apology off. "What trouble are you getting up to youngling?"

"I'm not." She defended herself. As soon as she said that the sound of pounding footsteps reached her ears causing her eyes to widen as she practically sprinted behind Ratchet's legs and crouched down.

"WHO DIED MY HAIR PINK?!" Galloway bellowed angrily as he came sliding around the corner to the corridor where Ratchet was standing. "AND WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY CLOTHES?" When Pink-bunny-hoppy-pants-Galloway saw Ratchet he froze and stared at the medic wide eyed. And Ratchet froze as well. Both of them just stared at one another for several long drawn out kliks.

Suddenly Ratchet busted out laughing at Galloway before he turned and scooped her up into his servo and carried her away. She was just able to peek around Ratchet's shoulder discreetly to see a look of absolute embarrassment and devastation on Galloway's face which was covered in pink dye. She stifled a giggle as she and Ratchet turned a corner, and once Galloway was out of sight she busted out laughing. She thrashed around in the big servo holding her and lightly slammed her fists down on the firm metal, not enough to dent it but enough to cause a series of good sized banging noises. She choked as tears streaked down her cheeks and dripped off of her chin...oh slag her clothes were going to be stained blue after this!

Through all of this she failed to realize that she was in fact being carried, or more like she had completely forgotten that fact. But since she wasn't terrified of the being touching her, or at least her laughter befuddled mind wasn't even comprehending it, she never bothered to think of it.

Until her laughter died down and she finally calmed down enough to realize where she was. As soon as her mind comprehended that she was being carried by a servo she stiffened and shot her eyes up to Ratchet's face plates.

His optics met her's, ridges inverting in confusion at her sudden almost frightened demeanor. He paused in his tracks and placed her down on the floor near her door. "I carried you all the way through the base and now you're suddenly scared of me?"

She flinched back away from him just slightly and shuffled her feet nervously. "I-I'm not scared of you. Being touched just makes me uncomfortable."

"And am I to assume that this stems from your time with the cons right?"

"Y-Yeah." She really hoped that he wouldn't ask her about anything in detail. Because she wouldn't tell him anything, not him or any of the rest of them. Her demons were her demons to be taken out and examined by her and her alone.

Ratchet sighed. "And you won't tell me about it will you?"

She shook her head and placed a shaky hand on her door. It was too scary to talk about, one of the only things that truly did terrify her still. And some might think that she was terrified of being touched, but in reality she was just extremely uncomfortable with being touched. She wasn't terrified, she was scared of it, and yes there was a difference.

The gruff medic scowled at her just a little bit. "One day I hope that you will trust me enough to tell me about it." Was all he said before he turned and stalked back in the direction of the med bay.

With that she turned and slipped back into her bedroom shutting her door softly after her. When she turned around to face the others gathered in her room she plastered on a fake smirk. "So how good was it?" Was all that she could get out when inside all she wanted to do was hide.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Here's the next chappie for you guys! No reviews today! Sorry guys! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! This chap looks to be a pretty long one so be prepared for a lot of reading!

* * *

><p>Sitting by herself in the rafters above the main hangar of the base allowed her to feel more secure. From here she could sit and watch everyone come and go, all while remaining completely hidden from the world. But this was for more than comfort; it was like a stake out. She wasn't just watching the people and bots come and go, she was using her empathic abilities to get an overall feel for their personalities.<p>

So far she had observed Jazz, Ratchet, Optimus, Arcee, the dumb twins, and Ironhide. She had a pretty good idea of what kind of mechs, bots, they were now.

Jazz was cheerful and upbeat but he also had a dangerous dark side always rolling around under the surface. It had confused her when she had first sensed the happy and...underlying malicious emotions. So she had switched to wide range sensory and tapped into his mental processes. It turned out that he used to be a torture specialist and he was remembering some instances when he had been commissioned by Megatron to torture other bots. These memories were thought of with...regret and even disdain. She wondered if he was trying to forget about it, or make up for it by being who he was now.

Next was Ratchet. She could tell that he was a highly irritable bot; feelings of irritation and anger were always rolling around in his helm. But more than that were feelings of compassion and a sense of determination that he kept hidden for the most part. Once again she had switched to wide range sensory to tap into his mental processes, and she had discovered that Ratchet would do just about anything to save another bot's life, or to see to their wellbeing. However he hated wounds that were foolishly caused by carelessness. Ergo he was a very irritable bot since the twins, both sets, and even Bee, and Ironhide, always acquired wounds from being reckless. And the irritability not only stemmed from his feelings of concern for their wellbeing, he was in fact just a very irritable bot. That would never change.

Optimus. He was a strange one to her. All kindness, compassion, patience, love... There was barely even a violent cable in his body! She could tell from one small look that he was a complete pacifist who would and probably did avoid battle when he could. That didn't mean that he wasn't a warrior. She could see small flashes of battles that passed through his processor when she really looked. But she always felt like she was invading other's privacy when she did that so she only scratched the surface before backing out, she had done the same with the blue and red mech.

Arcee was a serious femme who also possessed a deep concern and compassion for humans and other bots. There was a fierceness to her despite her small size, one that told her that Arcee would do just about anything to protect the base and its inhabitants be they organic or otherwise. But she also had a cheerful side when it came to others which was evident through her actions with anybot, be it helping a human soldier practice his sharpshooting, or sparing with the other bots to help them work on their form...dumb twins... She was always looking out for the others. There was also an underlying guilt over something that had happened in her past. All she caught was a fleeting name, Tyger Pax. Then it was gone from Arcee's mental processes meaning that she was forcing herself not to think about it.

The dumb twins were just what everybot thought they were. Reckless, headstrong, foolish, immature. But they also had a strong desire to prove themselves to Optimus. That seemed to be one of their only redeeming qualities...

And Ironhide... Tough a real no nonsense kind of bot. Hardened by war and never showed emotions to anybot else except for the older bots on occasion. All he seemed to think about were his guns and when the next time he would get to stick them in a con's chassis would be. Anger and resentment. The only things that he seemed to think about that caused any other emotion were the other bots, and a femme named Chromia. From what she could gather Chromia was not present on earth, she was fighting back on Cybertron. Ironhide missed her terribly...his sparkmate.

At that point she had roughly cut off contact with such intimate thoughts. She didn't have the right to just pry like she had been even if it was just to familiarize herself, and ultimately to maybe help her feel a little safer here. Which would probably take a long time to reach... Because if her past had told her anything it was that even somebot you thought you knew could suddenly betray you.

She scowled and slipped back through the rafters and down to the ground silently. Yeah...anybot could betray for personal gain. Trusting was foolish, because if they had betrayed her, these bots could betray her just as easily. So she just wouldn't get attached because getting attached was foolish.

She backed away and spun around...face first into a bright golden pede. "Dammit Sunstreaker! What is it with you and standing right in my path so that I run into you?" She growled out at the amused golden mech. Primus he had been doing slag like this all the time in recent days. At least he seemed to not hate her guts as much as he did before. They weren't best friends like Sideswipe seemed to want to be, but they were... Well she didn't know what they were because she didn't make friends. Acquaintances maybe? Work buddies?

"I don't move for half squishies Lilah." Sunstreaker smirked down at her as he reached down and scooped her up into his servo.

She stiffened imperceptibly when he touched her because it was still hard for her to tolerate. But she had been making progress towards not having a spark attack whenever it happened.

So when he sat her on his shoulder she just grabbed at his audio receptor to steady herself while he walked to Primus knows where. "Where are we going?" It just occurred to her that this was one of the first times that Sunstreaker had ever come to her, by himself, and not with Sides or Ratchet making him. And he hadn't even complained or sneered at her when he picked her up...

"To my room." He answered gruffly.

"Ok. May I ask why?" In her experience going to a male's room with said male, all alone with no one else around, usually resulted in something unpleasant. Not that she had ever partaken in such activities as going into a male's room with said male alone... Most humans just held a natural fear and disdain for her. Well besides Bee's humans anyways.

Sunstreaker just grunted but didn't deem to answer her until they were safely inside of his and Sideswipe's room.

It was a mess! Various odds and ends littered the room, like party balloons that weren't blown up, boxes of sprays titled liquid ass...canvases, paint cans, paint brushes... "You didn't bring me here to clean this mess did you? Because I'm not cleaning up your pig sty." She huffed from her perch.

"No that isn't why I brought you here. Sides can and will clean up when he gets back, I brought you here to show you something." He gestured to a painting covered by a tarp with a smug grin on his mouth plates.

Nervousness shot through her...what the pit was under that tarp that could make Sunstreaker grin like that? Whatever it was she was thoroughly scared, and wary of the golden mech who never, NEVER, grinned like this. "Do I want to know what's under there?"

Sunstreaker's grin widened even more until he vaguely resembled that cat from Alice in wonderland or something...either way it was creepy. "Yeah you want to see it. Trust me."

She held on tighter to his audio when he grabbed the tarp and proceeded to yank it away. Her eyes snapped shut against her will and she even buried her face into his helm for good measure. "Something tells me that it's going to be really freaky or really hilarious! And until I know which one it is I'm not looking!"

There was a loud huff and muttering that distinctly sounded like 'crazy half organics', before a digit was prodding her back. "It's funny and maybe a little scary."

Slowly, slowly she peeked out from his helm and to the canvas in front of them, and when she did her jaw dropped. Was...did he paint Galloway from the prank they did the other day?! And then she was laughing hysterically because the way Sunstreaker had painted him showcased him doing a seductive pose in a skimpier version of her bunny suit. "OH MY FRAGGING PRIMUS! WE HAVE TO HANG THIS UP IN THE MAIN HANGAR OR IN MESS HALL! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!"

Sunstreaker chuckled at her with the same creepy grin still in place. "As much as I'd love to do that Lilah...my paintings are too valuable to showcase like that. So I had Sides take a picture and send it to the email addresses of every representative on the base, as well as every soldier and bot. They should be getting it in approximately three kliks."

She snorted to try and keep her laughter in but that, and Sunstreaker's own snort made her lose it all over again. Doubling over herself she actually fell off of Sunstreaker's shoulder, only being saved from landing with a smack on the floor by his quick reaction time in catching her with his servo. But in this situation even smashing into the floor and bruising herself up for a day or so wouldn't have stopped her from laughing her aft off. And once she really got going...nothing could make her stop...

She laughed until her lungs hurt, until she could barely even breathe, until she was sure that Sunstreaker was getting irritated listening to her laughing her aft off. But she still couldn't stop! Not even when she got light-headed, not even when she felt like she was going to piss herself, not even when a second face, a red one, was suddenly staring down at her. For some reason seeing the red form made her crack up all over again.

She was desperately trying to talk if only to tell Sunstreaker that Galloway looked like a dirty slut in that picture, and that he was a genius for coming up with that. But all that came out was a choking gurgling sound...and something that was barely distinguishable as being 'dirty slut.'

Finally after a good ten kliks she started calming down, laughs turning into giggles, and then her lungs started heaving from being oxygen deprived for so long. So she laid there with what she now knew were Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe chuckling at her. She blushed a deep blue color and rolled over to hide her face in her hair. "Aww man! Now everyone's going to know my weakness!" She moaned pitifully.

"Hmm that you laugh yourself to the point of almost fainting? Yeah that is a good one! However I think that Sunny and I will keep it to ourselves so that the other bots can't use it against you. Well until they figure it out for themselves." Sideswipe's digit was suddenly poking at her back, then at her stomach to try to get her to roll back over again.

"Cut it out Sides! Let me hide in my hair until the embarrassment goes away!" Oh why? Why must she be laughtually retarded? And why must she have a tendency to make up such stupid words? And why was Sides STILL poking her? She jumped up and squealed in shock when his digit ghosted over her aft. "Sides that's my aft don't touch it!" She smacked his servo away sharply.

"Whoops sorry Lil...forgot about that." Sides grinned at her before leveling his open servo with Sunny's.

She sooo knew that he wasn't really sorry! He didn't even feel any guilt! Fragger was enjoying her fidgeting way too much for it to be considered polite. And Sunstreaker felt genuinely amused by his brother's antics. But she was not amused by them, which she conveyed quite clearly by glaring at him. "Sides no."

Both of them gave her confused looks. "No? No you won't go onto his servo? Or no for some other reason?" Sunstreaker asked her.

"Both. I'm not going onto his servo until he apologizes for touching my aft. And he has to promise to not do anymore inappropriate touching without consent." As soon as the last part was out of her mouth she was groaning in humiliation! Why? Why would she say that he needed permission to do that to her? Now he was going to think that she was open to hybrid, mech relations. Which she wasn't...open...to any relations. Too much bad history. Nope her being single was the best outcome for everybot involved. So she hastened to repair the damage that she had done. "Just don't like...feel me up or anything ok?"

They seemed to sense that she was uncomfortable talking about 'touching' so instead of arguing or teasing her they both nodded in acceptance. "Ok Lil I won't do any groping or feeling up." Sides murmured. "Now can you come over here?"

The servo holding her suddenly tilted over onto its side dumping her onto Sides' servo when she herself didn't move fast enough. She caught herself on her hands and flipped over onto her haunches as soon as she got over the initial surprise of being dumped, literally, onto Sides. "Sunstreaker you are such a jerk." There was no response for her efforts so she shrugged and turned her attention completely on the sheepish looking red mech. "So? How did initiating Galloway's political downfall go?"

Sides grinned at her and walked over towards the door so that he could peek out. "You coming Sunny?" He called back over his shoulder.

"Yeah." Sunstreaker grumbled before he appeared right beside them.

"Everyone should have gotten them by now...and I also added a nice little touch..." Sides suddenly dashed out the door towards the main hangar with her clutched tightly, but not too tightly in his servo.

She choked again when she saw pictures of Galloway, the real Galloway from the prank taped all over the walls and ceiling, and in big red writing on each picture was, **'Galloway fierce politician? Or secret furry?'** She balled her fist up and bit down on her gloved hand to stifle the furious laughter that wanted to nearly make herself destruct again.

But every picture that she saw made it harder and harder to keep it in, and just when she thought that it couldn't get any worse they arrived at the main hangar.

Her eyes bugged out of her head as any sound, breath, anything in her just stopped in shock. Because there was a giant pink paper mache sculpture of Galloway in the bunny suit dead center in the middle of the hangar. And bots, humans soldiers, and even Galloway himself were all standing around gaping at it.

"Well ah guess we kno' ya orien'a'ion huh Gallaway?" Jazz drawled suddenly breaking everyone out of their staring.

One by one everybot in the hangar busted out laughing except for Galloway who by now had a handful of pictures with Sides special headlining clutched in his fisted hand. And he looked to be about as red as the printing on the pictures too. The now shaved man made a low screaming sound from the back of his throat before spinning on his heels and storming out of the hangar past his guards who were laughing at his expense as well.

But she barely even noticed Galloway's retreat since she was now laughing hysterically in Sides' servo all over again. Rolling over and kicking wildly to the point that she could barely even breathe again. But she couldn't stop because it was just too funny, and her life had lacked real 'funny' for so fragging long. She had to literally bite her fingers and palm to muffle the sound and not draw attention to herself, which was pointless at this point because her loud tinkling laugh had drawn attention from every bot in the room.

And they were all now standing around the twins peering down, or up in Jazz's and Arcee's cases to get a good look at her, STILL laughing form.

And she tried! She really did try to get a handle on it so as not to embarrass herself anymore then she already had but it was pretty pointless when she made out the statue from the corner of her eye again. As soon as she saw it again she started choking around her hand again.

Which made Ratchet think she was choking, LITERALLY.

The next thing she knew she had been snatched out of Sides' servo so that the CMO could scan her, STILL, laughing form. The scan tickled her body and made her choking sound more pronounced, which had Ratchet, who was still scanning her, flying into some sort of panic. "She's choking! Please tell me that you two did not bring her into this mess that you caused while she was eating!"

Her legs started wildly kicking at Ratchet's servo, her laughter overriding the feeling of being uncomfortable being in said servo.

The world around her was suddenly flashing by in what she guessed was Ratchet's mad dash to the med bay to find out what was, obstructing her. She was proven right when her thrashing form was placed on a human sized berth, and she wished that she really had better control because the next moment Ratchet's holoform's fingers were prying her mouth open.

"Ratch...Ratchet calm...down!" She wheezed out as she struggled to take in more air. "I...laugh...too hard. Sometimes...sometimes it makes it hard to breathe." She finally managed to get out once she was breathing properly. While she waited for a response from him she got her first real good look at his holoform.

His holoform was a middle aged male with dark brown hair and sleek stylish glasses. He appeared to be taller than an average male would be at maybe six foot, still slightly shorter than Sides and Sunny's holoforms. His outfit consisted of beige slacks, black loafers, a light green button up, and last but not least a white doctor's coat.

And right now his holoform was scowling at her. "You laugh to the point that it chokes you?" Both the holoform and Ratchet's bi pedal form asked in sync. All with the same expression of disbelief and irritation on their vastly different faces.

"Umm yeah. When I find something really funny I sometimes can't stop laughing at it, which means that I can't take in oxygen right, which causes me to choke. It's not something that I'm going to die from so relax." Now that the initial amusement and hysterics were over she was growing increasingly uncomfortable being here. Being alone with mechs made her feel uncomfortable, even with Sides and Sunstreaker she felt that sometimes. Though she was getting better around them even if it was still hard. But Ratchet was not a bot that she had spent a lot of time with before; in fact she had spent next to no time with any of the bots besides the twins.

And even though she had been angry at first that they had made her move into the base, she was learning to be ok with that now. Not that she had forgiven, and she certainly hadn't forgotten, but she wasn't going to glitch and moan about it all day long.

When she looked back up Ratchet's holoform was gone. She had sensed it being disabled but she had simply not thought anything of it. But now that she was staring up at the towering form that was the CMO she found that she was still nervous around him. She probably always would be because she had a thing about medics...and doctors.

"You're afraid of me." Ratchet sighed quietly. A statement not a question.

She bit her lip and looked away because he was right, and if he could tell that just by looking at her then so could everybot else. So she didn't deny it since it wouldn't get her anywhere. But she didn't answer him verbally either.

And he didn't say anything to her either, until a manila folder was suddenly dropped near her lap. "Here's an alias for you to use so that you can freely wander around the base without fear of Galloway accosting you."

Surprise made her spark beat just a little faster as she gave the CMO a guilty look and took the offered file into her hands. She did feel bad that she couldn't trust openly like everybot else, and she wished that she could. But she just couldn't do it so easily as others anymore. She hoped that he understood what she was trying to say without actually speaking.

His optics held her's for several astroseconds before he nodded. "I understand, and I won't pressure you to open up any quicker than you are comfortable with. Neither will anybot else on base. Take your time and come around in your own pace."

Her lips pulled up slightly at the sides in a small smile. Breaking their brief contact she looked down at the file in her hands and flipped it open. It was a complete file on her with a fake age, birthdate, a real height and weight, and an occupation. Her brow lifted along with her eyes at the word marksman. "Umm I don't really use guns Ratchet so how am I supposed to make this more believable if I don't even know my way around weapons?" In her defense she had never really needed them since she could shoot energy balls that did more damage than most guns from her fragging hands! And when that failed she could strengthen her muscles to superhuman levels by concentrating her electrical impulses more strongly in her legs or arms. So when shooting energy balls was ineffective she just used her fists and feet and went to town. So guns...she didn't do well.

Ratchet raised an optic ridge at her. "Really? Well I guess Ironhide or Arcee will have to teach you won't they?"

She gulped and contemplated making an escape. Unfortunately she wasn't getting out of this because Ratchet must have commed the twins, cause the next thing she knew Sides was there picking her up and carting her from the room. All while she was still too stupefied to really run away from him. This was going to be a real glitch!

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

"Ok so what am I doing with this?" Lilah asked for the second time since Arcee had handed her a marksman rifle of some sort. The way she was eyeing the rifle was kind of amusing since she was looking at it like it was a minicon or something.

Ironhide sighed and pointed at a target that was closest. "Shoot the target." He said simply.

Sunny was getting way too much amusement out of this whole situation and the way that Lilah was trying Ironhide's patience so much, so fast. While he himself was worried that she might shoot herself in the leg or something since she had obviously never used a gun before.

As their charge brought her rifle up into position and lined up her target she looked to be cursing life in her helm. Her shoulders were stiff, eyes hard, and a deep angry scowl was pulling at her lips.

And then she pulled the trigger and the gun went off, which set off a series of events that would forever be known as the Lilah freak out. Because as soon as the gun went off, so did Lilah and not in a good way. She squealed and dropped the gun to the floor, and rearing her servo back, proceeded to completely annihilate the gun with a blast of superheated electrical energy, all while screaming that the slagging thing was too loud and now it was going to die because it nearly made her go deaf!

Sunny lost it and fell flat onto his aft rolling around wildly when she opened a can of destruction on the poor marksman rifle. And she really did...

Damn thing was nothing but a puddle of liquid metal when she was done frying it. And the strangest thing was that the rounds didn't even go off?! He was confused about why that would happen, but he guessed that it didn't matter since if they had gone off Lilah would've probably been pumped full of bullets, which would have meant that she had technically shot herself as he feared she might.

"LILAH WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY GUN?!" Ironhide bellowed angrily.

Lilah winced and turned around slowly, servos in the air in a placating motion, and then backed away from the angry black mech. Every part of her was just oozing fear and apprehension.

"No my M4 carbine..." Ironhide groaned down at the now destroyed almost $2,000 gun.

And then Arcee piped up and made the whole situation worse. "Well at least she hit the bulls eye."

And sure enough when everyone looked at the target she had in fact hit the bulls eye dead center. He shook his helm and sighed, Sunny snorted out another laugh, Lilah just shrugged and hid behind his wheeled pede. Ironhide gaped at the target then at his gun and finally at Lilah.

"YOU DESTROYED MY GUN WHEN YOU HIT THE TARGET?! WHAT THE FRAGGING SLAG FEMME?!"

"Hey it was really loud! You could've warned me or something!" Lilah peeked out from behind his pede and eyed Ironhide warily.

"I did warn you!" Ironhide argued back as he stomped his pede in unneeded aggression and retrieved another gun, this time from the weapons wall where the other practice guns rested. "Get back over here femme!"

"No I like it over here where you have to go through Sides to get to me."

"Hey!" he protested and scooped her up from the floor so that he could roll her over to Ironhide and sit her down.

"Traitor," she muttered under her breath after accepting the new weapon from Ironhide.

This time he stayed closer to her for her comfort as she was obviously unsure of Ironhide and Arcee. But he didn't assist her in her practice because Ironhide would beat his helm in for it.

She didn't seem to need help from any of them though after she got used to the loud banging when the gun went off. Once she got over it she was able to quite easily line up on a target and hit the bulls eye every time. But she still didn't seem to like guns as much as her energy balls...

After she finished off the first clip and added the second one she seemed to perk up. Turning to Ironhide she grinned just slightly. "Permission to try something?"

Ironhide scowled at her but nodded anyways.

She readied her rifle again, lined up the sights, only this time she didn't fire right away. The only inkling that she gave that she was probably doing something dangerous was the light blue energy that suddenly engulfed her body. The energy flowed into the firing mechanism and chamber of the rifle.

She tensed, they tensed, he made to stop her, but she pulled the fragging trigger anyways.

A loud resounding bang sounded in the otherwise quiet room, much louder than before, as a light blue vortex shot out from the muzzle of her gun and struck her target completely shredding, and disintegrating it for good measure.

And while the rest of them were gaping at her she had the nerve to drop her gun and grin at it. "That was cool." Which earned her an amused look from Arcee, a scowl from him and Sunny, and a full out glare from Ironhide. "What?" She gave them all clueless a look when she noticed that they were giving her 'the look'.

* * *

><p>(Lil's POV)<p>

Being in the dog house blew, especially when you were being given the 'you've been a bad sparkling' look by the terror twins. So the magazine could've exploded because she overheated the gun, in effect sending a flurry of bullets, possibly, into her body in various places since the clip was right next to her side. So she could've ended up in the med bay having bullets cut out of her skin! Meh!

It had made her first experience with guns more interesting which was something that she needed to learn a new skill. Of course after her little stunt Ironhide, Arcee, and even Sides and Sunny had decided that she needed a lesson in gun safety! So she had been forced to sit there for hours while Ironhide explained what safe behavior for her to partake in was, and what not safe behavior was, emphasizing her earlier stunt repeatedly. After that she had been forced to practice with normal rounds for another hour or so while everybot scowled at her as if she was going to pull another even more idiotic stunt any astrosecond.

So she hadn't. No she had been a good little hybrid and practiced like every other good little somewhat organic did. And she had been BORED the whole fragging time!

Afterwards she had been scooped up from the ground and carried from the room after Ironhide had given her specific times to come and practice with him. So she now had a schedule to go by...meh! At least she didn't seem to be shying away from other bots as much as she was. She still wasn't completely comfortable with them, but she could stand in the same room and talk to them without feeling like they were going to kill her or something.

Well she could probably attribute that to her past, and to the desensitization that Sides and Sunny were putting her through unknowingly. Her eyes widened when she realized that she had referred to Sunstreaker as Sunny in her own thoughts. Oh man now she needed to be careful not to actually call him that out loud! Cause she was pretty sure that he wouldn't take to it well at all. Because he was always angry, always irritable, and rarely reacted well to normal things. So yeah she needed to be careful about what she called him.

But for now she was being tasked with another challenge...and that was eating the food that the N.E.S.T cooks dished out on a daily basis. It was like eating rubber!

Sides sat her down near the entrance to the mess hall so that he and Sunny could shift down to their alt modes and activate their holoforms. Once the two popped out in their 'human' forms they all walked into the cafeteria together. Why they wanted to accompany her while she ate was beyond her, if they were curious of the taste Sides had already tested the stuff for himself once and he had not tried again after that.

She couldn't blame him cause the stuff was nasty. In fact she was thinking about possibly helping out in the kitchen in her free time...well not really cause she couldn't stand being in close proximity to others in such cramped quarters. But she was tempted...especially when she was handed some meat lump...and what looked to be mashed potatoes and cornbread.

She grimaced at the tray and carried it back over to a table where the mechs were waiting for her, with Jazz's holoform, Ratchet's, and another that she didn't immediately recognize. Until she poked at his aura with her sensory skills and deduced that it was actually Optimus's holoform.

Like Ratchet's it was the form of a middle aged man, late twenties maybe early thirties, with cropped black hair and electric blue optics. He was taller than the other holoforms by a good few inches and a little more filled out than Sunny. He was wearing a black leather jacket, a red t-shirt, and beige army pants with black heavy soled boots.

All of them looked up when she sat down next to Sides. "I don't know what those...I don't even know what to call them, call this this crap! Ugh if I wasn't so bad in closed spaces with others I would just take over the fragging kitchen to save the soldiers from eating this slag!" She picked up a fork and poked at the meat lump almost fearfully thinking that it might hiss at her or something... When it didn't she cut a piece off and slowly, just as fearfully, brought it to her mouth.

As soon as it hit her tongue she gagged and made a face at the horrible saltiness of it and held up a hand as if to excuse herself as she spat it back out. "Nope. Not happening!" She gagged and grabbed the cup that Sides offered her so that she could chug some water down to rid herself of the taste. "Holy mother of hell! There's a limit on how much salt tastes good!"

The mechs all chuckled at her sympathetically... "Yes I do believe that it is also unhealthy for humans to ingest so much salt is it not?" Optimus chuckled quietly.

"Yes! Aww bloody hell! That's it I can't stand this crap anymore! Sides take me to the store real quick!"

"Why?"

"So that I can get some ingredients to cook these people real edible food!" She made a face and pushed the cursed tray away as far as it could go and into Optimus's face.

Sides and Sunny shared a look and the former shrugged. "Ok sure as long as we get to try some."

"Sure whatever! Let's just go before someone drops dead of a heart attack in here from ingesting too much salt!"

The three of them got up from the table, only to be stopped by Ratchet standing up as well. At the odd look they were all giving him he scowled and pointed at her. "I'm coming along to make sure that these two don't coerce you into buying a bunch of junk food."

"Umm ok." Weird...but she wouldn't question it. Nor would she question it when the others, even Optimus, stood up and followed her and the twins. Ok...even more weird. How hard or challenging would it be to take a bunch of super intelligent alien robots grocery shopping?

* * *

><p>Turns out it was very hard! As soon as they stepped into the store she was immediately being badgered by Sides to get him some chocolate donuts, and when she told him that he couldn't even eat a lot of human food he just pouted and said that he could eat some. So she grabbed a bag of Little Debbie chocolate donuts for him to make him happy.<p>

But that peace didn't last for long while she surfed through the isles looking for all the ingredients she needed to make Irish stew, because Ratchet kept questioning the ingredients contents every time she added one to the cart. So she had to explain everyone to him because he apparently didn't want to look it up himself. That took up a good chunk of time.

It was around the time that she added mutton to the cart that Jazz came sprinting up to her with some chicken jerky in his servos and a pleading look on his face. "Put it in." She sighed and proceeded to go back over what she already had in her head to make sure that the constant distractions weren't making her forget anything.

That only lasted for about five astroseconds when Sunstreaker appeared at her side and attempted to sneak a pound of angel cake into the cart. "Why do you need that?"

"Because it says right there on the label that it's pure perfection, just like me!"

She growled in the back of her throat and pushed her cart forward while the younger mechs, Sides, Sunny, and Bee who had joined them as they were leaving base followed along right on her heels. Why wasn't Bee with Sam anyways?!

Turning into the meat section she stopped and ordered a couple pounds of lamb that needed to be prepared in the back. So she stood there while the bots meandered around poking and prodding at crap and in Sunny's case scaring the slag out of humans passing by, until the worker came back and handed her items over to her. She added them to her cart and steered the little procession away from the meat section so that she could hit produce so that she could get carrots, potatoes, onion, and parsley for it.

It was while she was doing that that Bee suddenly skipped over to her with a bottle of Dr. Pepper in his servos. "Can you even have that?" She growled out because she was pretty sure that he couldn't.

Bee's tall blonde holoform just shrugged his shoulders and dumped it into the cart anyways. "I can try it right?" His baby blue optics lit up and he gave her a dimpled smile before running off somewhere else.

Her vein twitched in her forehead as she turned away and focused back on what she was doing. Just stay calm! Stay calm and don't go off on them for being clueless! Just steal the DP from Bee before he even has a chance to drink it! Yeah that'll make everything better! DP makes everything better!

She kept up this chant until Optimus appeared beside her inquiring as to how she could tell which vegetables were best used... Her head fell forward in defeat as she explained how to tell which veggies were best to use and which should be avoided. "Anything bruised of dented should be left behind. If the bags have been ripped or torn in any way you should pick another one."

"Strange."

"Yeah I guess." But she didn't really think too much on it because her whole life was strange. So she grabbed the potatoes, carrots, onions, and parsley, spring onions and added them to her cart. She hoped that she had enough on her card to pay for all this slag with what they were all adding to it.

Next she steered their little procession towards the front of the store so that she could check out. Which took forever because the lines were so fragging long! And was also annoying because she had a group of six very attractive, by human femme standards, males all crowded around her.

And then Sides had to go and grab an armful of random candy to throw in her cart. "No. Put it back!" She placed herself between him and the cart and spread her arms out defensively.

He pouted and sulked all the way back to the shelf to put them back, then he turned to her and held up a Reese's fast break bar.

"One." She muttered in a clipped tone as she pulled the cart forward and started unloading it onto the belt while ignoring the glare that the cashier was giving her for having so much stuff. At least Ratchet and Optimus decided to help her unload it all while the other mechs were too busy running around the lanes like animals. With the exception of Jazz who was chilling out on his Ipod. Which made her question why he even had one when he could just listen to whatever he wanted in his own helm. But whatever she didn't need to know why.

Nor did she even try to understand it when her eyes landed on the already exceptionally high price...she winced and checked her debit card's balance real quick just to be safe... She would barely have enough to cover the end total...and all the excess money was going to spoiling these idiots. There were a multitude of things on the belt that she hadn't even realized were there! Sneaky slaggers!

"The total is $304.98"

Ouch. Just ouch! She gritted her teeth and handed her last paycheck over to the cashier so that she could swipe the card. "Hey Jazz?"

"Yo!"

"Can you load the bags into the cart please?" she asked while she watched a whole week of work go down the drain for candy and goodies.

"Sure l'il lady!" Jazz passed her by and started loading the cart up with Optimus going to help him as well.

When the cashier handed the receipt to her she slipped it and her card into her wallet which she slid into her side pocket.

"You really shouldn't spoil them you know," Ratchet suddenly muttered.

Shocking her because she didn't realize that he was standing so close to her in the first place. "Yeah I know." Her eyes trailed over to the side when she saw Bee go sprinting by with Sunny hot on his heels, and it didn't escape her notice that Sides waltzed by casually and in no way attempted to break up the situation at all. "They aren't so bad though...you know? It's actually a lot easier for me to be around them, than it is for me to be around other people."

Ratchet snorted and looked to the side when Sides came sprinting back with Sunny chasing him this time and Bee trailing along after Sunny with a bruise already forming on his holoform's cheek. "That just proves that you aren't normal femme. But you should fit into this rag tag family just fine." With that the CMO left her to go and round up the others so that they could leave.

She couldn't help it...the small smile that tugged on her lips. Family...she hadn't had one in a long time. And then the smile faded as soon as it had come, because she had already told herself that she wouldn't get attached...and here she was doing it anyways. What the pit was wrong with her?

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><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

"Whatcha making?" Sides asked for the thousandth time since Lilah started cooking.

"Irish stew and champ." She bit out for the dozenth time since he kept repeatedly asking her.

"What's that?"

"Food."

"Yeah but what kind?" Sides pressed with a grin.

"Leave her alone Sides and let her cook!" He finally snapped when his twin started grating on his nerves as well. He was pretty sure that they weren't even supposed to be in the kitchen at this time of night, and he was also pretty sure that waking up most of the soldiers from a dead sleep so that they could eat something good was also a bad idea. Though most of them had come along relatively quickly at the promise of a good meal. Now the cafeteria was filled again with humans in various states of undress, boxers, t-shirts, shirtless... He had to wonder if they had all forgotten to care that they were somewhat naked when they ran to mess hall.

And he also had to wonder if Lilah was some kind of master chef with the way she had two huge pots of this Irish stew slag, and two pots of what she called champ on the stove, without burning any of it.

Their charge switched the stove off and hefted one of the pots from the stove so that she could carry it out to the bar where the workers usually scooped the soldier's food. "Grab the rest and bring them out." She ordered quietly.

Sides shrugged and grabbed both pots of champ by the handles leaving him to grunt and grab the big pot of stew. Together they carried them all out to the bar where dishes were already set up and waiting. They sat the pots down and backed off as a stream of human soldiers practically bum rushed the bar to get their servings.

It was all a blur of bodies rushing around the bar in the space of several breems while he and Sides, as well as the rest of the Autobots just watched the food disappear before their optics. He actually had to shove a human aside who was making their third trip to the bar so that he could get some for Lilah to eat.

"Leave some for the cook slaggers!" He growled out as he filled two bowls for her. Pit this stuff smelled good! His actions earned him a glare from the soldier that he had shoved, but he merely flipped him off and made his way back over to Lilah who was sitting with the other bots at a table in the corner. "Here."

She looked up at him in surprise when two bowls were suddenly sat down in front of her. "Sunn- Sunstreaker?"

He scowled slightly at the almost slip up when she said his designation. "Eat. You didn't eat a slagging thing all day long femme."

"Thanks."

"Sure." He sat down beside Sides and leaned forward on the table while she tore into her food. Poor femme was probably starved by this point! And those damn human males weren't even trying to save her some food! It didn't escape his notice that she had avoided the bar completely after it had been swarmed...was she phobic about touching humans or something?

If she was he couldn't blame her...humans were oily and they smeared his armor whenever they touched him. But he had the feeling that she wasn't bothered by it for that reason, and not only with humans. Sides hadn't really told him much about her yet...because he hadn't really cared at first. Now he was curious. Maybe he should ask later?

He was suddenly snapped out of his musing when a spoon was thrust near his mouth. "What?" He grumbled when he realized that the stew she had made was wafting into his smell receptors.

"You wanted to try it right?" She raised a brow at him and jerked the spoon against his mouth.

So he opened it and allowed her to spill the broth into his mouth. The rich salty flavor lit up his taste receptors instantly. Yup a world better than the slag that those other cooks made these organics eat. "It's good."

"Yup cause I cooked it." Her statement was accentuated by a smug smirk before she turned to Sides and offered him a taste as well.

"Sunny's right this is really good!"

"Is it now?" Lilah asked slowly. When Sides nodded enthusiastically she grinned and gestured to the pile of dishes that were piling up on the bar. "That's good cause you get to do all the dishes so it's good that you enjoyed it, because you'll be getting to know the ingredients more intimately in a klik."

His jaw dropped, Sides choked, and Bee whirred sadly when she pointed at him too. Wait had she given every bot a taste? "No. No way am I doing dishes!"

"Well I guess that you don't know proper etiquette Sunny cause the cook never does the dishes! So they better get done if you guys want to try a decent breakfast in the morning!" She looked around at him and the other two and smirked before she got up and walked out of the room. "Think of this as payment for making me blow all my money on your goodies!" floated over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner.

It was quiet for a few kliks. "Man that is so uncool." Sides murmured quietly.

Uncool was right...she was downright evil.

* * *

><p>Haha! R&amp;R please! Some good bonding time here! hope you all enjoyed it!<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

So I'm doing another chappie today because I really want to get the relationships in this story developed as soon as possible. Oh and for any of you who were wondering, Bee can talk in his holoform since it's not his real body and the vocal cords of his holoform aren't damaged. Anyways I do not own transformers!

* * *

><p>Have you ever had the feeling that your own spark is betraying you? That you know what it is that is best for you, to keep you alive? And then your spark goes and tries to single handedly destroy every attempt you've made at self-preservation? Well that was what she was feeling right now.<p>

After the little grocery store episode she was so lost that she barely even left her room. She only did leave to work, or use the bathroom, or to shower, sometimes to eat. But other than that she kept herself locked up inside of it from sun up to sun down.

Because she couldn't risk going out there...going out there and letting her barriers waver even for an astrosecond. Which is what would happen and she knew that. Because these bots here really weren't giving off the signs that they were out to get her, and that made her spark, which had been denied contact with anybot else for so long, crave the companionship that most of them were trying to give her. But she couldn't risk taking it.

Because betrayal could come from anybot at any time with no warnings whatsoever. Hadn't she learned that when she had loved him? Hadn't she learned that even a sister can betray you when she stole him away from her? And hadn't she learned that if you don't love you can't be hurt anymore than the constant pain of loneliness?

For centuries she had existed, alone, a solitary killer who hunted the cons in secret. No attachments to any others, because attachments got you killed, attachments made you second guess yourself, and second guessing yourself got you killed. It hadn't been the reason that she had left them behind...not all of it. She had truly wanted to keep them safe from harm and that was why she had left.

But it was also because of the betrayal that had been thrust in her face...when she had given him all of her spark. And it had been so hard to do that...so terrifying...and yet he tossed her aside like she didn't even matter. How could she have not known? Why had she trusted them so much that she didn't even think for one klik to tap into their auras? Why hadn't she caught on sooner?

Sure her powers had been a lot weaker when she was younger, but she still should have known. Should have known so that she could save herself from the pain that would come. But she hadn't. Because she had trusted those two so completely that she would never have guessed for even an instant that they would do that to her. But they ha-

Her head popped up when she sensed two quite irritated, and in one of their cases, very worried, auras approaching her door. Astroseconds later there was a loud series of knocks from what she knew was Sunstreaker.

"Open the door!"

"Sunny I know that you're worried, but yelling at her is only going to make it worse."

The banging only got louder after that so she reluctantly got up and pushed the door controls to unlock her door. She raised a brow when the door parted and revealed her Guardians, Sunny's golden servo raised to pound on her door again. "Yeah? Is there a reason that you keep going apeshit on my door?" She winced at how meek and defensive she sounded.

And so did the two of them. Because she had become far more open and less introverted in the days leading up to the grocery store trip. She still wasn't the most social at that time, but she had at least been made to speak at least a few sentences a day to the bots here. And since the night that she had ransacked the kitchen she had refused for any reason to see the bots at all. Whenever she sensed their auras outside of her door she dulled her own aura down so that they thought she was in recharge, and for Ratchet and the twins who refused to buy that, she just ignored them until they went away.

But now as Sides knelt down next to her with a worried look on those smooth chrome face plates...she felt bad. "What's wrong with you sweetspark? I feel like you've reverted back to how you were when we first met."

"So?" She shuffled her feet and muttered under her breath. What was wrong with the way she was? Quiet, introverted, angry, and explosive. No bot could ever say that she didn't have a colorful personality once they saw both sides. "I've got a lot on my mind ok? Just let me think for-"

"No. You've been holed up in this room for three days femme!" Sunstreaker snapped cutting her off mid-sentence. "When is the last time you ate something besides the junk food that you stole from Sides anyways?"

Her cheeks lit up in an embarrassed blush when her stomach chose that exact moment to rumble loudly...because she hadn't eaten at all in the last few days. Well besides one of the bags of chicken jerky that she had stolen from Jazz. And now her lack of sustenance was visible for the two annoying mechs to hear.

She was suddenly yanked up by a red servo and dangled in front of Sides' suddenly angry face plates. "Please tell me that you've eaten Lil!?" The look on his face was promising a stern lecture or something if she responded negatively to his question.

"Some jerky...?" It came out as more of a question then anything. One of these days she was going to learn to just completely follow her gut and not open that door. Because when you opened that door everything that you're trying to keep out just comes flooding in. Flooding in, in the form of two large red and gold mechs.

Sides was upright and out the door as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

It was a no brainer to figure out where he was taking her to. That didn't mean that she was particularly happy about any of this. Not the concern that he was showing for her, not the close attention that was being paid to her wellbeing, nor the emotions that were rolling around wildly between the three of them. Worry, irritation, deep affection...

It made her angry...at herself and at them for letting it get this far. Because she had sworn to herself after leaving 'them' behind that she would never allow herself to grow attached to anybot else ever again. Part of it was that she didn't want to replace them, even if some of them had caused her pain. And she felt like they would think that if they saw her now, smiling and laughing like she never could with them. Because life had never brought them good fortune or security, no happiness and therefore nothing to laugh about. The only one that had ever tried was Annabelle and that was only because she just had the bubbly goofball personality. But it had helped lighten the load sometimes...if only for a few kliks.

She fully expected no bot to really care about how she had been acting besides the twins, but when she was placed down and led into the mess hall by the twin's holoforms she was surprised to see the other bots sitting at a table waiting for her. And for an instant she contemplated running, even looked around wildly for an escape, but she was firmly grabbed by both of them before she could. Man it was times like these where she should just switch on her precognitive skill...

But there was no time as she was pushed into her seat with Jazz, Optimus, Ratchet, Bee, and a tall black haired holoform that she instantly recognized as Ironhide.

Military style buzz cut, a slight stubble on his chin, dark stern blue eyes, and very filled out. He was wearing a loose black t-shirt, dark black cargo pants, and heavy soled boots like Optimus. And he was staring her down angrily. "You have missed training for the last three days." He gritted out in a clipped tone.

The anger in it almost made her flinch back, if it had not been for the fact that she was already in an exceedingly bad mood she might have. As it stood right now she was not going to take slag from anbybot, not in holoform or in real form. So she glared back full force. "You were the one that insisted on it, I never agreed to it."

He didn't seem put off in the least, if maybe a little surprised at her attitude and blatant anger. It only made him scowl back at her and puff himself up. "You need to know how to work a gun to make your cover story more believable or did you forget about that?"

A tray was sat down in front of her courtesy of the twins, providing her with an outlet for her anger in the form of whatever kind of meat lump was on her tray, one that she was now viciously stabbing with her fork. All while imagining that it was Ironhide's stupid aft. "I wouldn't need a cover story if bathroom raider and underwear sniffer here hadn't forced me to come live here." She bit out and stabbed her meat again angrily.

"What's gotten into you Lil? You haven't ever acted this slagged off, at least not lately."

Sides question just caused something in her to snap! She slammed her palms down on the table and shot up in her seat. "DON'T ACT LIKE YOU REALLY KNOW ME!" She yelled down at him angrily. "MY PROBLEM IS YOU! YOU'RE MAKING ME GET ATTACHED TO YOU AND I DON'T WANT TO! SO BACK OFF AND LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"

The cafeteria was silent after her screaming fit. And that only pissed her off more so she turned and growled as loud as she could and snapped at the human soldiers. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT? EAT YOUR FOOD BEFORE I COME OVER THERE AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROATS ONE BY ONE!"

Every soldier went back to eating right away as none were willing to test her wrath.

There was so much fragging anger in her, at herself, at Sides and Sunstreaker, at the other bots! Because they were making her change, and while at one point in her life that had been okay, it wasn't now. Because when you changed you left holes, weaknesses to be discovered by yourself and by others, openings to be exploited. And she couldn't afford to be exploited anymore...

Her eyes drifted over to Sides' crestfallen face, and not just his but Bee, and even Sunstreaker looked a little upset by what she had said. And for an astrosecond she did feel bad for yelling at him, at them...but she was just scared and angry at herself. She quickly excused herself and rushed out of the room, out of the main hangar, and into the world outside.

As soon as she was free of the base she stopped holding back on her power...in a burst of bright blue light she had completely disappeared.

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

He just sat there where she had left him, left them, in complete shock. There just was no obvious reason for why she would be acting this way when she had been so open and forthcoming with them before. Well not open, but accepting of them, and maybe not really forthcoming, but she had been making an attempt to be ok with being around them.

And that was all that he could ask of her, because he knew that there were things in her past that hurt her immensely even to this day. Things that made her skittish and afraid, not just of them, but of herself as well. It was like she didn't trust herself let alone anybot else. So how could she really start to trust them if she didn't trust herself?

But he wasn't going to stop trying to break through her barriers because there was something there inside of her that was calling to him. He didn't know what it was, but what he did know was that he couldn't go back now. He didn't want to either.

Her words about not wanting to get attached to him struck his spark deep...it hurt like a son of a fragging glitch. Not just him either, but Sunny as well, though his twin would never make an outward notion to show that. But he...well his servo had been clutching at his chassis since she had run out.

And he didn't know why! Why was it hurting to fragging much? Because they were friends? Because he considered her a friend? But he had friends die before and he never felt it this badly! So why?

"She'll come around Sideswipe."

His helm snapped up upon hearing Ratchet uttering those words. "How did-?"

The CMO just raised an optic ridge at him knowingly. "Because I'm a lot older than you...and also because both you and Sunstreaker have been alternating between watching the door, and sulking since she left."

Sure enough when he turned to his brother, Sunny was scowling at the doorway she had disappeared around.. Not only that but his twin was feeling emotions such as yearning, and loneliness. He had never thought that he would see a day that Sunny would be lonely with him right beside him, and all because a small femme had run out on them.

"I don't miss her!" Sunny suddenly snapped angrily. "If she wants to be a glitch let her be one! Because I don't care about anybot besides Sides!"

"No one said anything about missing her Sunstreaker." Ratchet smirked at Sunny's now shocked and embarrassed face. "You came up with that all on your own. But it does make me question what exactly your feelings for her are? She seems like a lot more than a duty to you two." Slowly Ratchet's optics slid over to Optimus, then over to Ironhide, then back to them again when the two older mechs own optics widened.

But before Sunny could say anything Arcee came racing into the mess hall and over to the table they were still sitting at. "Hey what are you two doing here?" She asked him and Sunny.

"Well we brought Lil for breakfast but...she got angry and left." He murmured, helm tilted downward in dejection.

"Yeah and she ran off base too! I thought that you two were going with her so I didn't stop her! And then I walk by mess hall and see your alt modes parked by the door!"

He shot up out of his seat and instantly disabled his holoform, returning to his alt mode and peeling back down the hallway in reverse. As soon as he backed into the main hangar he spun his back wheels and took off out of the hangar.

He felt Sunny and Bee trailing him closely as they shot out into the desert surrounding the base. What had she been thinking when she ran off without one of them?! What part of this Guardianship did she not understand? You didn't go anywhere without your protector!

**'Apparently she didn't care.'** Sunny muttered through the com link.

**'Well she should care! What if a con gets their servos on her?'** Just thinking about it made his spark race a little bit faster...and not in a good way.

**'Maybe she just wanted some time to herself? Sometimes when Sam and Mikaela fight he locks himself in his room and won't come out.'** Bee suggested.

Sunny grumbled something to himself and shot as much irritation as he could muster into the bond. **'Speaking of Sam, why haven't you been with him as much lately?'**

**'Because he's been at college and he can't have me there with him. So I go and visit during the day and come back here at night.'** Bee replied like it was no big deal.

**'So he and his girlfriend are too busy to spend time with you is what you're really saying.'** He responded in a distracted tone as he scoured the desert for any sign of his charge...his...well he didn't even know what she really was to him anymore. Because you wouldn't get so hung up over a friend leaving right?

**'You would.'**

**'Shut it Sunny. Now isn't the time for your attitude! And stop thrusting your anger at me already!'** He marginally closed the bond between them to filter some of it out and make it more bearable. Some days he really got tired of Sunny's attitude! The most important thing was finding Lilah and he wanted to be a royal afthole about it!

**'What is it with you guys and Lilah anyways? I like her a lot cause she's really funny even if she has an attitude...come to think of it, she's kind of like a mixture of you two. Sunny's anger problems and attitude, and your smiles and humor Sides. Maybe that's why you two like her so much? Cause she can get along with both of you at the same time?'**

Well...Bee was kind of right. Lilah was like a perfect mix of the two of them and he hadn't really noticed before. He had been too focused on getting her to open up and feel more comfortable with the bots on base, so he had not been paying as much attention to her personality...well parts that didn't interest him as much. Like her anger problems that were so eerily similar to Sunny's that he thought nothing of it...didn't even make the connection because it didn't really surprise him. And then there were the moments when she smiled, as rare as they were, and her smile would light up the whole room. She was humorous and funny in those moments, just like him.

But underneath that she was suffering and he should have known. Because Sunny was the same way, lashing out in anger when the past reared its ugly helm. They couldn't just talk about it because they would see it as weakening themselves in front of others, and those that were weak were struck down. Both of them saw it as protecting themselves.

That was why Sunny had been unable to keep her at arm's length like he had initially wanted to. Because he had seen that pain, seen her anger for what it was even if only subconsciously in his own helm. But he had seen it and acknowledged it and that was how Lilah had managed to get into Sunny's spark without even trying.

And to a lesser extent they had been able to get into hers as well. But she was fighting it as fiercely as she could, because she was scared. And that was what made her more like him, because at first he had been scared to let others in because in his helm they couldn't understand him. Because letting them in would've made him and Sunny vulnerable... Pain made him afraid, it made him curl in on himself to protect himself. She was doing that too by pushing them away from her.

A perfect joining of the two of them. Was it coincidence that they had found her...? Or had Primus sent her to them because she was like them?

His engine gave a loud roar as he sped up. He needed to find her so that he could understand what he was feeling, and also to make sure that no more pain was forced upon her spark.

* * *

><p>(Lil's POV)<p>

Free. She felt so fragging free with the world blurring around her as she jumped over trees, sprinted at inhuman speeds, and soared over the ground with each leap. It felt good to let the tension leak out of her bit by bit as she indulged in one of man, and Cybertronian's oldest activities. Because everybot ran, for fun, to survive, or to clear their heads like she was.

And it helped more than anything, almost anything, to clear her head and spark if only for a few moments. In times like these she could afford to remember the past, the good, the bad, and everything in between. And she could just pretend that she was like she was right now, strong, fast, powerful! She could pretend that she was going back to change things.

Moondancer wouldn't have died that day. Estellise, Jezzebelle, Annabelle, Miata, Demetri... none of them would have had to go through the pain of being lab rats. Even if she felt the anger that she did at the last two...she would never forsake them. If she had been able she would have changed things for all of them.

But she hadn't been able to...and as she slowed down from her run and stopped at the edge of a cliff overlooking the city, that reality came crashing down on her again. Funny thing about her running therapy...it only worked when you were running. And then the things you were running from slammed into you full force with all the momentum that you were running from them with.

Her shoulders slumped as her legs gave out and she slowly slid to the grassy hill below. The barrier that she always kept so strong suddenly wavered, and the tears that she always kept locked away finally fell. Because she hadn't been strong enough...and her spark was so empty that it hurt.

The soft lilting voice that she yearned to hear speaking to her in her head was long gone. How many days had it been since she had last heard it? A million? Two million? And how much had the pain eaten away at her spark?

She was a shell of what she had been at one point. A caring girl who saw the suffering of another being and offered comfort regardless of what they were. A girl who had found it in herself to not hold the actions of her tormentors on another of their kind. A girl who used to smile and laugh...who used to walk next to those light blue pedes and look around at the world around her in awe.

They were together when she finally realized how soft grass was to lie in. They were together when she realized how truly bright the sun was. They were together the first time she admitted that she had forgotten what the world looked like in her captivity. And she was there for her when she had finally allowed herself to cry over her family and her people.

And through all of it Moondancer had offered comfort that she desperately needed. The same comfort and unconditional love that she had offered at first glance. And it hadn't been because Moondancer had saved her during a routine test subject move either, it wasn't because she had freed her from the cons that were holding her captive, it had been because of the moment that their optics met for the first time.

From the very first time that we met, I knew nothing but suffering from her eyes. Eyes that could endure no more, that screamed for an end to the anguish and pain. Eyes so like mine that I could not turn away.

So she hadn't turned her back. She had followed Moondancer even when she hadn't wanted her to, even when she had pushed her away at first, and even when she tried to leave her behind. She had still followed her.

The tears started falling faster down her cheeks when she thought of their time together... The moment where her danniluk had first opened up to her on every level and bonded to her. A creator/sparkling bond. She remembered hearing her voice for the first time in her head, remembered feeling the love that up until that point she was sure that no one could feel for her, and she remembered how happy that had made her. After so much suffering, after being called a demon from birth, after losing everything, somebot loved her.

She bit her lip to stifle a sob breaking free...because she didn't want to cry about it anymore. All she wanted was to go back and fix it! And crying wouldn't help her do that, because crying didn't help anything! It only made others know that you were weak and vulnerable!

But she couldn't make herself stop! Because her spark was just hurting too much and no amount of blocking it out was helping to make it better. No amount of saying that she was okay was lessening the pain! And no matter how much she said that she was done crying, the tears wouldn't stop.

They only increased in the speed with which they were leaving tracks on her cheeks. Her control broke, she just let go and fell into the dirt and sobbed. Because she wasn't ok and she never had been. And she never would be because her spark was lonely, and her head was too quiet, and she wanted the others... But she knew that she couldn't go back...

So she cried. Because at this point crying was all she could do. There were no other choices, and she couldn't have stopped it if she had tried because she knew that she had made too many mistakes. She had let others in again, her spark had betrayed her! And she wondered in some deep dark part of herself if this was Primus's way of saying that hybrids were not a part of his grand plan for his race. Was this his way of saying that he had forsaken them? Were they even considered his creations?

No. Probably not. They were experiments...with no real purpose besides suiting the needs and goals of others. It was for these reasons that they had been created, and it was for these reasons that they would die lonely and sparkbroken. They were not born in love; they were born in death and hate. For who could truly love a being that killed their own birth mother? A being that inadvertently brought death to entire villages? That's what she was. A bringer of death to all those around her.

And she was scared...not only to let others in, but of the certainty that they would die because of her if she did. So that was why she would turn them all away, because she wouldn't stand anymore pain in her spark.

It was during this revelation that she felt it, the approach of several auras. Three that she recognized well, and two that she really didn't recognize well at all, one was just a little bit familiar to her muddled mind. At this point she didn't even care that they were all closing in on her. She didn't care that what she knew were cons, were just a little bit closer.

She just didn't care. So she laid there unmoving even as two large red optic'd mechs suddenly appeared before her. She laid there when the one that she knew as Barricade, the one that had knocked her off her bike bent down to pick her up. And she laid there unmoving when those cold digits wrapped around her and squeezed her none too gently.

She just sat there staring up at their sneers...because her spark hurt to fragging much to do anything else but stare. And that realization only made it hurt worse because she always fought back against them and here she was sitting there...letting it happen.

"What happened femme?" Barricade sneered at her showing his sharp denta. "You were so feisty last time. Did the Autoscums turn you into a pacifist too?"

"Leave her be Barricade. We can interrogate her when we return to the base."

Starscream. Tall. Dark silver. Decked out in weapons from pede to helm. And dangerous. She remembered him from Bonecrusher's last moments when she had broken into his helm to gather as much information as she could about the Second in Command of the Cons.

"I can't wait to see if what Burstimpact's files depicted are accurate." Barricade licked his mouth plates with a dark sickly looking glossa.

It made her Energon run cold, both at the implications, at the designation that he mentioned. How did they know about him? She had destroyed his fragging frame to a pool of molten metal! She had destroyed all of his monitors and data pads! So how did they know?!

And then she was struggling vigorously as the fight built back up in her! But she had been foolish in letting him wrap his servo around her because she couldn't move her arms to push the digits apart at all. So she did the next best thing...she zapped him. She built her power up over her skin and directed it at the cold metal servo that was still squeezing her too tightly.

It got her the desired reaction from the con, Barricade hissed and loosened his digits.

Giving her just enough room to slip out from between them and hit the ground sprinting. She needed to put some distance between them and the outskirts of the city so she ran through the trees, not so fast that she lost them, but fast enough that they were hard pressed to keep up due to the trees blocking their path.

She turned and ducked passed another tree, kicking her precognitive sensory skill on and in doing so painting the world around her a stark black, the only colors lighting up in her optics were the bright silver outlining of living animals, or trees, with the occasional flash of bright blue that was their electrical impulses shooting through their bodies.

Skidding to a stop in a wide open clearing she waited patiently for her pursuers to catch up, all while being completely aware that the other three mechs were closing fast. A smart, or cowardly being would have waited for back up, but she was no coward. And she wasn't going to throw her battles on anybot else.

That was why when Starscream pounded into the clearing she did not hesitate to rush him helm on. She gathered energy into her hands and threw several energy balls at him, ducking to the right when a bright flash lit up his right arm, and easily avoiding a servo pounding the ground where she stood astroseconds before. She came up out of her roll running, firing several more energy balls at Starscream, as well as at Barricade who had caught up to them by now.

But she didn't falter in her attack in the least. Because she had an advantage over them, she could see their moves before they even made them. And no matter what went through their processors, no matter what genius idea they got, they couldn't stop the tell-tale signs that lit their auras up whenever they went to attack or defend.

So she attacked, spraying them in a shower of energy balls over and over again, whilst simultaneously dodging every attack that came her way soundly. Unfortunately her attacks didn't seem to be doing as much damage as she would like, and she couldn't accurately pinpoint a weakness in their armor due to their constant attacks.

Ducking down under another closed servo she breathed deep and gathered energy into her arms and legs. If you couldn't succeed the first time...Try try again! She shot up from the ground in a leap so fast that Barricade didn't even have time to think about falling back before she brought her energy coated fist up and slammed it into his lower jaw. And she didn't stop there.

She swung again this time catching his optic and smashing clean through it.

The con bellowed loudly and wildly swung his servo to dislodge her. But she was able to use his chassis as a foothold and throw herself back up and over Starscream who she knew was trying to sneak up on her from behind. She went sailing over his helm, eyes meeting his startled and angry optics as she fisted her hand and slammed it into the top of his helm.

He went crashing down to the forest floor like a couple tons of dead weight...which he was.

And she landed in a crouch opposite of the two of them. Tensed. Focused. She was not going back to that pit again!

There was a sudden pounding behind her, ripples racing along her enhanced vision from the impacts. She knew who it was, and she knew that she didn't have time to finish this mess before they got here. But she sure as slag could try!

She waited until Starscream was back on his pedes before she bum rushed him again, firing energy balls with one hand, and shooting up off of the ground swinging with her other fist. There was a sickening crack when her fist made contact with the metal of Starscream's chassis, pain shot up her arm, and that little distraction made her falter just long enough for a servo to collide with her side in a move that she normally would have seen.

It sent her crashing through a tree at the edge of the clearing resulting in several more loud cracks from her chest, and another from her right arm, and a whole slag load of pain to shoot through her. She bit her lips and closed her eyes to prevent both the cry that wanted to escape her lips, and the spray of splintered wood from getting in her eyes as she slammed none too gently into the ground below.

Damn her and her recklessness! This was another day or two in the med bay waiting to happen!

A shadow fell over her before she could get up again. "Hybrid or not you are still much more vulnerable than one of us. And so much more...breakable."

She tensed when he went to grab her and scrambled to erect a barrier to prevent him from touching her. But she couldn't make her power cooperate since it was desperately trying to heal the damage that had been done to her. Her eyes stayed locked on his blood red ones refusing to show weakness even when she was cursing her own stupidity in her head. Because she had just gotten beat due to carelessness...in a fight that should've been easy enough to win.

Starscream froze and looked to the right a split astrosecond before a bright golden form came barreling out of the trees and slammed into him.

And then a red form came rushing into the clearing next, followed by a bright yellow and black one. Bee went after Barricade who had fled the clearing as soon as Sunstreaker had come rushing in, while Sideswipe came rushing over to her and knelt at her side.

His optics lit up as he scanned her for injuries and he cursed when he found what she already knew was there. "Ratchet's going to have your aft femme! You just got out of the med bay for injuries like this!" He gently took her into his servos and curled his digits around her protectively, but not enough that they were squeezing her broken ribs.

While she was laying in his servos she switched her wide range sensory on so that she could locate Bee and Sunstreaker, she found them a couple hundred yards off and returning to their location. Feeling just a little bit better that they weren't hurt she cut off her sensory power. But she couldn't block out the almost soothing way that Sideswipe was caressing her broken body, causing no pain at all. Or maybe she was already hurting too bad to really feel anymore?

Whatever it was, she couldn't help but to think back to what she had done to him earlier. Yelling at him to leave her alone, telling him that he was her problem...she had been so cruel to him. And he had still come to help her, and not just him but Sunny and Bee too.

Both of who stomped back into the clearing just as soon as she even thought of their designations. And they both came over to assess her state of being. "How bad are you hurt Red?"

She scowled weakly at Sunstreaker as her lungs struggled to take in air past the pain. "Broken ribs...maybe an arm...and definitely my right hand. But that was my own stupidity...chassis was too hard to punch through."

Sunstreaker snorted at that. "It's a lot harder than the metal on the training dummies."

"Yeah I know. I don't have the proper protective gloves for servo combat against bots, but my energy balls weren't hacking it cause their armor was more reinforced then I'm used to." Probably because they had analyzed Burstimpact's data and devised a better defense to use against her. Which had been noted for next time. "I'm not going to the med bay."

"Oh yes you are," Sideswipe said sternly before he cradled her to his chassis and shifted all around her.

Black leather greeted her back a klik later... She would cuss him out later...yeah...after she apologized for yelling at him.

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><p>Cliffy! Don't hate me and please R&amp;R!<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

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><p>DarkshadowXsunny-sides- Yeah I know! And trust me stuff like that may...or may not happen quite a few more times in this story! Answerthecall- Thanks I'm glad you like it! KittyKat25- Down girl I'm working on it lol! Anyways on with the story! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!<p>

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><p>"What were you even thinking femme?" Ratchet asked her for the thousandth time since Sides had brought her into the med bay.<p>

It was the morning after her attempted kidnapping, and apparently Ratchet wanted to play the game where you get up and ask pointless questions just because you can. Either way it was getting really fragging annoying because she had answered the medic several times, but he seemed not to be listening to her at all.

And to make matters even worse was the fact that Sides and Sunstreaker had camped out in the med bay to watch over her, and in Sides' case drive her nuts throughout the entire night. But right now both of them seemed borderline irritated at her, at Ratchet, and somehow amused at how irritated she seemed to be. They were fragging freaks and nothing and no one would ever tell her differently.

She growled low in her throat in aggravation and glared at the CMO, who by this point she was well past being frightened of. No she was too busy being angry and irritated at his repeated questioning of her to be afraid of him. Well that and the fact that she was reading his aura constantly while she was in here to make sure that he didn't try anything. So far his aura was turbulent from his anger, but there was no hostile undertone directed at her, the twins maybe, but not at her. "Ummm well I was thinking that I wasn't going to be a science experiment for a bunch of red optic freaks! The only reason that I broke my hand, and therefore the rest of my body, was because I didn't have my spiked gloves to help me puncture that fragger's chassis. It was too hard so when I punched it I broke the slag out of my hand, which disrupted my sensory skill, which in turn got me smacked through a tree. WHICH almost got me kidnapped if it hadn't been for Sunstreaker barreling through the trees like a fragging wild animal." At the end of her little explanation she cocked her head to the side and raised an expectant brow at him. "Is that good enough for you Ratchy?"

His optic twitched, the twin's snickered, and she berated herself for ever being afraid of him. "Do not call me that femme." He suddenly growled out in what she knew was embarrassment from the bright pink aura surrounding him.

"Can do Ratchin." Her new nickname caused him to twitch again, the pink aura surrounding him growing dark orange with irritation. "Hey Ratchin you're turning orange. Might wanna work on that irritation of your's cause an empath is gonna see it one day, realize how fun you are to mess with, and then they're gonna tweak the frag out of your aura." If anybot asked her later about what she was thinking when she egged Ratchet on like this she was going to say that it was the pain killers he was giving her. Because she was never ever this loose and carefree except when she was on painkillers, or maybe it was that the ones that he had given her were purposefully made stronger because he knew that she was a hybrid? "Can I leave the med bay now? If I stay any longer I might actually stop being scared of you completely and that will not be good for me." Yup definitely drugged up...

In response the CMO just pushed her down onto the bed she was on so that he could run a scan over her body to ascertain her injuries rate of healing. All without a word, but she knew what he was doing because she could read it in his aura. That was another thing that was weird.

Because she normally couldn't have more than one of her senses on at one time or else it would become overwhelming for her. But she had her empathic abilities, and her wide range sensory on right now and it wasn't making her want to purge...probably because of the medication she was on. Her readings weren't as accurate as they normally were and her senses seemed quite dulled down, but it was still a miracle that they were working in tandem without almost making her pass out at all.

And she neeeeveeeerrrr stayed still during a scan! Never! Not in her whole long life! But here she was laying still and letting a medic, A MEDIC, of all things scan her and treat her without a fuss. Something was definitely wrong with this situation...yup definitely wrong. She wasn't being restrained, she wasn't scared out of her wits, and she wasn't being dissected yet.

Yup definitely off...nope not right at all. She decided to ask him why he wasn't doing those things when he finished scanning her. "How come you haven't tried to dissect me yet?" She blurted out like an idiot when he moved to unclip her IV.

Her question made the whole atmosphere of the room go dark and heavy. Emotions immediately simmered down to anger, or disgust, especially in Sides case. There was a hint of confusion from Sunstreaker who seemed to not know what to think about what she said at all, and he was definitely communicating with Sides to try and figure it out.

Ratchet just seemed frustrated and pissed by the question being asked at all. "I thought that we discussed this femme. I am not a Decepticon, that means that I do not dissect innocent bots and in your case hybrids. Whatever I need to learn I can do so from observing you, or even from working on testing you in other ways, other non-painful ways that do not require you to be cut open."

Her eyes met his optics briefly as she took in the seriousness of his aura, the regret that she had to go through things like that, and the determination to make sure that it didn't happen again. "Huh...I guess it must be frustrating huh? That I can't just take words at face value and believe them...I can't even believe them when I feel that you're being truthful. Well I couldn't before, and I can't say that I'm going to trust you completely after this, but I don't think I'm quite as scared of you as I used to be." Her eyes drifted over to the door slowly when another aura stopped outside of it. "Just don't make me regret being a pussy ok?"

The aura just outside the door was Optimus's, she knew it because his aura was a mix of different colors all the time. Flashes of pink, bright emerald green, soft blue, bright silver, and a bright pure gold. Loving and tender, truthful and intuitive, receptive to new ideas and people, and divine guidance and protection.

It was an aura unlike any that she had ever seen before...and she didn't quite know what to make of it at first. The other bots seemed to have normal auras; Sunstreaker was a muddled angry red with flashes of light pink due to his creative and secretly loving side. Sides was red as well, but he also had hints of a greenish yellow, and small flashes of dark murky pink and the same soft silver that Optimus had. Then there was Jazz who was dark red indicating that he was strong willed and grounded among other things. Ironhide was the same, but he also had the muddled red that told others that he was a very angry bot. And so on and so forth with other bots... And then there was Optimus who had so many facets that he might make a normal empath sick just trying to keep up with them all.

She stopped musing when the tall blue and red mech finally opened the door and walked into the room. He made a beeline for her bed and knelt down next to it so that he was more on her level.

"Are you well Lilah?"

She grunted and sat up despite her ribs protesting slightly. "As well as I can be I guess seeing as how I broke my own hand trying to punch through a reinforced chassis...but I do think that I dented it at least... Still it kind of surprised me that I wasn't able to break it because I strengthened my arms and legs to over fifty percent max power..." Her eyes widened when she caught herself muttering quietly to the rest of the room. Why could she not learn to watch her mouth? Why? Damn these drugs that Ratchet had put her on!

Biting her lip to stifle anymore idiocy escaping it, she turned towards the wall and cursed at herself. "Really gotta learn to watch my fragging mouth!" She berated herself quietly. Every time she turned around she was blabbing about more stuff that she didn't want anybot to know...

But didn't the cons already know? Hadn't Barricade brought Burstimpact up when they had tried to take her? So didn't that mean that they already knew about her? If they caught the more detailed files, things were about to get way worse for her, and not just for her but for the others. The question for her was what the frag was she supposed to do? Run away and hide? Contact the others somehow and tell them that they were in danger? Call them to come here? Or leave it be because contacting them could clue Soundwave in on their whereabouts since hacking into just about anything was his specialty. Phone lines, internet, radio frequencies, cameras... She had the feeling that if she wanted to bring them here she would have to go and get them herself. Without any bots...because they would probably attack whoever she took with her. And there was no way that she was going to risk Sides or Sunny getting hurt-

"Oh pit! Did I really just think that?!" She exclaimed out loud, and then she promptly hit herself repeatedly in the head with her good fist because she was an idiot! The world's biggest idiot right here! No not the world, the UNIVERSE'S biggest idiot!

Sides snickered at her, and she even heard a distinct snorting sound from Sunstreaker. At least Optimus wasn't laughing at her, though he did feel somewhat amused.

She gaped at the four of them openly for a moment before she snapped her jaw shut and turned to Ratchet. "Can I go now before I embarrass myself more?" Before her cheeks heated up and stained an even brighter blue?

Ratchet just shook his helm and nodded it at Optimus indicating that the Prime had questions for her.

So she huffed and sat there patiently. They had saved her aft again so the least she could do was help them understand...within reason.

"What was Starscream's reason for attacking you?"

A blunt question, and she appreciated bluntness. So she decided to be equally blunt. "He didn't, Barricade and him tried to take me so I attacked them." Her comment earned her wide optics from every mech gathered, but none more so then Sides and Sunny. She shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "Hey they started that slag, and I would have finished it if it hadn't been for my moment of stupidity when I punched a reinforced chassis with my bare hand. I really need a pair of reinforced spiked gloves you know? Cause then I can focus my energy into the spikes and increase their piercing power." She grinned and made plans in her head to go and have a pair made...and then her grin faltered cause she didn't know anybot who could make a pair strong enough to use. "So disappointing." She sighed sadly as her excitement deflated.

Sunstreaker snorted at her. "I can see about making you a pair."

Her head snapped up in surprise, obvious surprise, she was sure that her eyes were even watering like those anime characters that her nerdy self-liked to watch...often ahem! "Really? If you do that for me I'll owe you big time!" She backtracked over her last sentence and sputtered at how many implications a bot could pick up from that. "I mean yeah I'll uhhh owe you a favor back...within reason."

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Now she felt like a fragging idiot!

"You can give me a helm to pede wax and polish, as well as washing my exterior."

"Typical Sunny." Sides sighed quietly.

While she eyed the two of them like they were aliens...wait they were aliens. Yeah ok so she was definitely out of it today! "Sure I guess..." The response came out as more of a question than anything. Well at least it was something that she knew how to do thanks to her job. A throat clearing caught her attention... She turned back to Optimus and eyed him expectantly. "More questions?" And when did she get comfortable enough to joke with him when yesterday she had been contemplating running away from all of them? Maybe she had hit her head harder on that tree then she thought?

"I asked you why they wanted to take you. Was it for your abilities? Or was it for some other reason that you have yet to impart on us?" In that moment, with his tall towering form knelt down over her, and those deep blue optics peering at her so deeply she was almost sure that he could see parts of her that no bot else had before, she felt so small and almost defenseless. Because he was a Prime and she knew what Primes were. The strongest and considered the purest bots in the Universes.

Her survival instincts suddenly caused her to noticeably lock up. If she said his designation...would they be able to figure out more than she wanted them to? And if they did would she have to run again? Would she have to leave Sides and Sunny behind when she was just starting to get over her fear of them...and call them friends?

She had to say something...even if it was a half-truth. Just enough to give them something, but not giving them everything that everybot wanted. "They managed to find certain files that one of the con scientists apparently left behind. There was something in it that they were interested in, though I can't consecutively say what at this point because there are a multitude of different things in each file."

Optimus's dark blue optics continued to stare her down as he processed what she had said in his massive super computer brain. "So you do not know exactly what it was?" He pressed quietly.

"No. There were a lot of different files that were apparently left behind. We thought that we destroyed them all when we broke out, but there were some that we must have missed." All because Estellise wanted to get the pit out as soon as possible! And she had scored highest in leadership and strategizing! Yet she didn't even want to waste a few kliks of time to make sure that everything was completely destroyed.

And now they were going to pay for it. Because the cons knew now, and that meant that they would be coming for them at some point.

"I see." Optimus's optics darkened as he released a loud vent. "I do not suppose that you are feeling comfortable enough with us to be completely honest?"

She nearly choked when he asked her that. But she managed to quickly school her features into a stoic mask. "I am being honest." She answered impassively. How had he even known that she was keeping something from him? Hell she had invented the perfect lying face! No one ever saw through her when she was truly intent on keeping things from them. Well apparently besides the bots here, Optimus especially.

"I see. That answers my question then." The large mech stood back up but did not move away from her. Instead he offered her a kind and reassuring smile. "Whenever you are ready to talk know that I am here. And whatever it is that you fear revealing will not cause us to treat you any differently. We have taken you in as one of us and that will not change."

Her mouth fell open and closed as she struggled to understand, and respond to what he had said. Because it was just too completely unexpected and shocking that she couldn't form a real response to it. It brought what Ratchet had said in the grocery store to mind, along with the way that she had gotten herself into a lot of trouble by turning it away... But what could she say? She had always been alone in the last two and a half centuries. Alone with her fears and memories, and now others wanted to come in and fill that place in her spark.

Moondancer's smiling face came to mind then. Smiling, offering her a gentle servo when she fell down, laughing when she got upset at herself for falling down, comforting her when she was hurt, and berating her when she acted reckless as children often do. Family. Moondancer had been her mother, her family, her everything, loved even more than her hybrid companions. And she had been a bot, one of these creatures, one that she should have feared... But she hadn't. And little by little she was starting to feel more at ease with these bots as well. She still had a ways to go before she was completely ok with them, but she found that she was willing to try.

"Thank you," she replied honestly.

"You're welcome," Optimus replied before he turned and left the room.

And she watched him go all the while feeling a new kind of respect for the Auto bot leader. He really was different; all of them were different from the others of her kind that she had known. Besides Moondancer.

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><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

A few days had passed since Lilah had been attacked by Starscream and Barricade, and it had been two days since she had been released from med bay again. In that time he had spent every moment he could spare working on her fighting gloves...or gauntlets since that's what they were pretty much. He had procured some electromagnetic enhancers from Ironhide to make the gauntlets magnify her own energy without her having to put as much in.

He had also fitted them with retractable six inch long spikes that popped out from the top of the gauntlets. The enhancers would send her magnetized energy straight to the tips to increase the piercing power of her punches.

And he had made them from sleek Cybertronian alloy of the highest caliber that he had been able to get his servos on. After careful consideration he had decided to paint the gauntlets gold for their flawless build, just like their creator. Sides had given him a look for that last part.

But he hadn't even taken his optics off of his work to glare at his twin. Because he had promised her that he would make them...and after what Sides had told her of what he knew of her past, he wanted her to have something else to defend herself with if she was ever on her own again. And with these he was sure that she would be able to break through a mech's chassis reinforced or not.

In fact he was also contemplating making her a sword or something...but he wanted to see if they could make a portable subspace for her first. That way she could take it out in public when she needed to, without getting accosted by the 'police' or whatever they were called. Cause he was certain that it was 'illegal' for organics to carry weapons like swords and guns in public. Pffft stupid slagging organics.

"You're a real bucket of sunshine today."

"Yeah well I have to finish these gauntlets for you Red. And I was also thinking about making a sword for you to use, but you wouldn't be able to carry it in public. So I was pissed that I would have to wait on that one." There was a soft touch on his pede. He stopped working to reach down and grab Lilah with his bipedal mode, while he kept working on her gauntlets with his holoform.

As soon as his bipedal mode sat her down she crouched down next to his holoform and watched him work. "Gold Sunstreaker? Can you be more self-absorbed?" She joked quietly. Still not completely a hundred percent at ease with him.

But she was getting there and that was all that mattered. "Gold is the color of divine power." He responded as he finished tightening the knuckle joints where the spikes would pop out, cursing as he cut his holoform's servo on the sharp point of one. Slagging frag it to the pit where he was sure Megatron was wasting away right now! Damn holoforms, damn organic flesh was so fragging easy to damage that it was unreal!

Lilah snickered at him as several small drops of Energon dripped from the small wound. She reached for his servo and ripped a piece of her sleeve off to tie around the flowing wound. "Gotta be more careful when you're flesh and Energon Sunny...I mean Sunstreaker." She hastily corrected with a sheepish look on her face.

For some reason it only served to irritate him that she didn't feel comfortable enough to call him by the nickname that he hated so much. Which pissed him off even more because he didn't even like it when Sides called him Sunny, and here he was getting slagged off that she wouldn't call him Sunny.

Life just wasn't anything like he had ever remembered it being. Here he was spending time WILLINGLY with a half organic, making her weapons, and conversing openly with her when everybot knew he was quiet and brooding all of the time. Words just never were his thing that was where Sides was best suited to be, talking for the two of them. Whenever he tried he ended up insulting someone, or threatening them be it purposefully or not, or he was just a plain afthole without even trying to be. But with Red he wasn't really like that, he still had his moments but he generally didn't mind her being around. Sides had apparently gotten to him through the bond.

He grunted and handed the now finished gauntlets over. "Sunny. You can call me that."

Her jaw dropped and she stuttered like Bluestreak, thank Primus he was still lost in space somewhere, for a klik or so. "Umm what? But you hate it when Sides calls you that even!"

"Yeah well you don't annoy me nearly as much as everybot else. So you can call me that."

"Ok. I guess it's fair since you call me Red all the time." She admitted while she worked her leather gloves off so that she could see how the gauntlets fit.

When the smooth material was pulled away ugly jagged scars were revealed on her pale flesh. Like someone had placed her palms down on a flat surface and just stomped on it causing the bone to break through the skin or something. At least that's what he concluded after looking up similar scars and their causes on the internet. He couldn't say conclusively that her servos had been stomped on, but he was pretty sure that something similar had happened at least.

But she seemed to not be very concerned about them, or maybe she was just used to them and thought nothing of it. Whatever it was she just slid the gauntlets into her fists and flexed her knuckles slightly. "So how do I make the spikes retract?"

"They automatically retract when you do this." He turned her gauntlet covered servo upside down so that he could show her a small red button on the wrist, once he found it he pushed it. The spikes instantly retracted as the metal gauntlet shifted and retracted completely down to the wrist.

"Whoa cool." Lilah stared at the golden bracelets that were on her wrists now.

"Yeah well I made them...and I also know that you can't have gauntlets in public either. So I figured that you would need to be able to hide these as well. And well earth femmes like bracelets right?"

"Yeah I guess." A small flush broke out across her cheeks and she looked away. "They're really cool Sunny. Now I can get back at that slagger Starscream for smacking me through a tree!"

He snorted at her and released his holoform so that his nanites could be called back to his bipedal form. After the initial haziness of returning to his real body faded he shifted to grab his charge from the table he had been working on top of.

He grabbed his wax and polish, rags, soap, and walked out of the room with her sitting on his shoulder. "You owe me a wax and polish Red...and a wash."

She scowled at him as he walked them to the main hangar which was thankfully clear of other bots, and sat her down on the floor near a water hose and some buckets. Once she was settled he handed the items to her and settled down onto his back with his servos tucked behind his helm.

"I'm washing you like this?" Red muttered in disbelief.

"Yup. This way you can really get all the gunk out of the grooves in my armor and slag. So you better get to work cause it's gonna take you a while to do the front and back." He smirked when she gave an irritated growl and started the hose up so that she could fill a bucket with soap and water. Oh how he was going to enjoy this.

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><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

That was how he found his twin and charge when he returned from patrol several breems later. With Lilah on Sunny's chassis scrubbing him clean and getting herself covered in suds in the process, which she did not look at all happy about. But Sunny looked pleased and happy as could be since she was digging down in the grooves and getting out all the gunk that was normally so hard for his brother to get out himself.

He snorted and waved Jazz and Ironhide off so that he could approach the two of them quietly. He even dulled the bond down completely so that he could surprise Sunny. But Lilah sensed him and turned towards him with a brow raised in confusion. So he grinned and held up a digit to his mouth for her to be quiet.

She shrugged and went back to what she was doing like it was no big deal. Quietly he crouched down behind Lilah and tensed. "OH MY PRIMUS LIL YOU MISSED A SPOT!" He suddenly exclaimed in a loud yell making her jump.

But Sunny's reaction was fragging priceless, and he recorded every astrosecond of it for blackmail later. Because his twin instantly onlined his optics, grabbed Lilah in his servo and shoved her into his hold, drew his sword and swiped at him all in the same move.

Which he just barely dodged cause he was laughing way to hard. "What'sa matter Sunny? Did I interrupt your washing time?"

A loud growl was the only response that he got from his twin as the larger mech reluctantly placed his sword back in subspace, and retrieved Lilah from his hold. "Fragging idiot! What if I had jumped up and crushed her somehow?! Do you even think about what you do before you do it?!" Sunny growled at him angrily. He didn't seem to realize that he was also running his digits up and down Lilah's helm and back gently.

But ohhh he recorded that too! Sunny being gentle and almost...affectionate. Well there was no 'almost' because his twin was being openly affectionate. What a strange world this was turning out to be.

Sunny leaned back down and placed Lilah back on his chassis. "Rinse so that you can do my back next."

"Don't tell me what to do Sunny!" Lilah snapped irritably as she slid down and retrieved the hose so that she could spray his front to remove the suds.

He almost choked on his own glossa when she called him Sunny, and Sunny didn't actually do or say anything about it at all. What the slag was this world coming to for real?! Sunny hated it when he called him Sunny! No something was definitely wrong here! Yup definitely wrong cause Sunny wasn't pissed at her or anything for the nickname.

And somebot was washing him! Sure he knew that Sunny had told Lilah that his payment would be a wash and wax, but he hadn't really thought that Lilah or Sunny would actually do it. Sunny was too particular about who touched him, and he was especially picky about others washing him because he needed it to be done to perfection or else it wasn't good enough. But he was letting Lilah wash him with no complaints whatsoever. In her defense she was doing a good job though, not a speck of dirt or grime in sight. Almost like Sunny had done it himself.

"I need you to roll over onto that towel there okay?"

"Yup got it."

Yup weird. Definitely very weird. But he made no comment as he settled onto his own aft and watched Lilah start scrubbing at Sunny's back, just as meticulously. Digging into the grooves and peeling gunk out of each one, lathering his bright gold aft until it shone.

"There a reason you're being so thorough Lil?" he asked when she started working down Sunny's legs.

"Because he made me a pair of kickaft gauntlets," Lilah muttered as she dug some dirt out of a knee joint.

"Ahhh so he bribed you."

"No we had a deal. I always own up to my promises if I can." She almost slid off of Sunny's leg, just barely managing to catch herself so that she could work the side of another joint. She did offer the back of Sunny's helm a dark glare though before she went back to peeling gunk out of more joints.

"I see. So does that mean that if I ask you to do something you'll do it?" When her head snapped up with a threatening expression he grinned.

"Don't test me Sides. I'm in no mood."

"I can see that."

"Then don't mess with me." she threatened from where she had hopped off of Sunny's pede to grab the hose to rinse him off again.

"Shutting." Smirking he watched her rinse Sunny off completely all while she looked like she wanted to inflict bodily harm on him. It was even more evident to him that she in fact did want to beat Sunny's helm in when she started towel drying him, rather roughly if he was being honest. Not that it would hurt or bother Sunny one bit.

"Egotistical pretty boy mechs!" Lilah cursed as she broke out the wax and started waxing Sunny from the back of the helm down. Cursing, muttering, spewing death threats, and just plain being pissed when the wax fell into grooves and she had to scoop it out and start all over again in that spot. "Making me wash you like some sparkling! What the pit do I look like? A fragging nanny?"

He snorted out a laugh when Sunny flicked a look over his shoulder at the still glitching femme polishing him. His twin looked highly amused with this whole situation, and satisfied with her work.

"Damn Red you can polish. I might have to make you do this more often." Sunny mused.

"Oh pit no you slagger! I am not going to be your designated glitch who comes running at your beck and call! Flip over so I can do the front fragger!"

Sunny did so and crossed his servos behind his helm after she climbed off of him. He was watching her closely when she retook her spot and worked from the front of his helm down.

"Fragging glitch from pit." Lilah glared at his twin's smirking face plates the entire time she waxed his chassis, lower plating, and legs.

"So do the other hybrids know Cybertronian curse words as well?"

"No." She answered him as she worked on Sunny's knees carefully. "I learned them from my mother."

Both of them perked up at that. "Wasn't she dead before you were born?" Sunny asked quietly.

"Yeah...I was talking about my other mother." She seemed to slow down for some reason, servo stilling just short of finishing polishing Sunny's knee. But she seemed to snap out of it and quickly finish up her task so that she could clamber off of Sunny's now shining form.

"Lil?" He subconsciously scooted closer to her when she refused to respond to him. Sunny even sat up and did the same thing.

"Nothing."

But it wasn't nothing. Even if he didn't know her he would be able to hear the pain in her voice. By now he had figured out that she had been close to one of their kind before, she had admitted that with her actions all along. And even to a lesser extent she had admitted it verbally. "You know that you can talk to us right? We won't judge you."

She stiffened slightly, water droplets falling with loud plops to the floor below in the now silent room. "I... don't like to talk about it...about her." She finally admitted after several intense moments of silence. "The others didn't care for my choice you know? So I just never talk about it."

"Well we will listen and not judge like I said. So if you want to talk about it we'll listen." They would listen just like Ratchet, Optimus, and the other bots had done for them. Everybot needed an audio to talk into sometimes right?

She turned to them then with a look of anguish like he had never seen on her face before. Her optics were shining a bright blue indicating that she was astroseconds from leaking, but he could tell that she was fighting it back from the way that her lips were pursed angrily. "When I was little I was saved by a femme named Moondancer." Her voice broke just slightly on the name becoming hoarse and scratchy. "She and I...sparkbonded as creator and sparkling."

His optics widened and his spark stuttered in his chassis. A sparkbond between a hybrid and a bot? Well he supposed that he should have known since she did have a spark but... Normally for a spark bond the two that were bonding had to open their chassis and literally press their sparks against one another. And he knew that she was part organic so she could not do that. He gulped audibly. "Please tell me that...you didn't have to be cut open so you could bond with her?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "No why would I have to be cut open for that? She just opened her chassis and I channeled my spark through my skin and touched it."

"Thank Primus. I was worried that you might have had to suffer to go through a bond like that."

"No. I just touched her spark when I ran my own spark over my skin. Bots can't do that, but hybrids can because we are part organic."

"So she was really important to you?" This time it was Sunny that had asked the question.

"Yeah she was." That light blue glow built up again in her optics as she chewed at her lip with her denta.

"What happened to her?" He was almost afraid to ask because he was pretty sure that he knew. And if he was right that meant that Lilah was probably suffering from a spark fracture. And she always would until Primus took mercy on her and took her to the Well of sparks.

"She...she died a long time ago. We were only together for a short time after bonding before she was killed. I was still small, and my powers were mostly dormant so I wasn't able to do anything to help her." And it was obvious that to this day that bothered her, caused her intense pain.

But she had been only a small sparkling back then, small and defenseless, and not at all to blame for her femme creator's death. He knew that she did feel guilt over it though; he could see it in her leaking optics. "Lil it isn't your fault."

Those green optics suddenly hardened into a steely glare. "Don't say that. You don't even know what happened!"

A swell of sympathy and even slight anger built up in his spark. Sympathy because he knew how she felt since he had watched his entire planet be destroyed, bots that he knew dying in mass. He knew how death felt. And then he was angry at her because a sparkling has no chance of defeating a full grown bot! It just wasn't plausible or at all fair to blame herself for what happened. "I don't need to know the whole story to know that it wasn't your fault! It could only be your fault if you took your own servos and offlined her yourself! So let me ask you," His optics held her's. "Did you offline her?"

Her mouth snapped shut as her optics finally started leaking over onto her cheeks. "No."

"Then it wasn't your fault." Sunny supplied in a calm voice. Both of them turned to his twin in surprise, part that he had spoken at all, and partly because he was trying to comfort her. "What?! I can be honest and even...nice when I want to be." He grumbled as a small rush of blue lit up his cheek plates.

Yup the world was definitely getting stranger every day. His inner comment earned him a smack on the helm from his brother. He winced and rubbed yet another dent that was caused by his lovable Sunshine brother. "Sunny's right though Lil. You can't blame yourself for things that aren't within your control." Cause if you could he would blame himself for a lot of things, and at some points he had anyways until he realized that you can't help everything, and bad things will just happen no matter what you do. When you realized that it made things just a little bit easier. Because no one deserved to have the weight of everybot else's choices on their shoulders. You had to be judged for what you chose to do, the events that you could have changed, not what happened when you were powerless to do anything.

Those delicate shoulders drooped down, red hair swinging back and forth when she shook her helm sadly. "But it was within my control. I could have left her alone when she wanted me to...when she pushed me away I could have just left. But I refused to stop following her."

"Why? Why did you keep following her?"

"Because she was suffering." Lilah answered simply as she gingerly wiped some of the Energon leaking from her optics away. "My sensory abilities weren't really developed then, so I didn't sense it like that... It was more like I saw it in her optics. They were sad and lonely like...she was scared and alone. Like she hurt so badly that she didn't want anybot else to see it, to know of her pain. But I saw it because I was the same way. That was why I...when we first met I hugged her."

"Lil..." He breathed quietly, in a sad tone.

"She needed it." Lil murmured quietly. "But she didn't know that she did so she kind of kicked me with her pede." She sniffled and smiled a small shaky smile that quivered with the strain of just keeping it there. "But I'm a hard head so I didn't take the hint and I followed her anyways. I even jumped off of a cliff at one point and knocked myself out. When I woke up again she was glaring at me like I was some kind of nuisance."

"Or like she didn't know what to make of a small squishy throwing herself off of a cliff," Sunny snorted.

"Yeah probably." Her breath hitched like she was caught between laughing at herself, or sobbing at the memory. "It was ok though...I loved her anyways. So I kept following her. And eventually she stopped trying to kick me away from her. She would talk to me even though I never responded back, even if it was just to tell me that I was a hindrance to her. But I was never mad at her for it; even if I had been able to talk I would have probably just laughed at her."

"Why couldn't you talk?" Sunny shifted closer to her and leaned down so that he was a little closer to her.

"Because I was pretty messed up from being with the cons...and being dissected and stuff. I stopped talking for a long time because of it. And I didn't start talking again until I told Moondancer why I was following her. It was after she had been injured by a con that was trying to retrieve me. He tore her midsection open before she managed to take his helm off." She cleared her throat and wiped the leak marks from her cheeks. Which was pointless because she was still leaking. "I felt guilty about it so I practically threw myself at her. She never really knew how to respond when I did things like that so she just asked what I was doing. And I couldn't answer her at first because my voice didn't want to work...But I managed to ask her if it hurt. She was surprised that I had spoken at all, but she told me that it wasn't that bad. She said that she had similar injuries before and to not worry about her. But I told her that I could see it anyways even if she tried to hide it, that her smiles couldn't hide it from me because I knew what it was like. That it was the reason why I had refused to leave her side after we met. I never clung to her because she saved me, in fact if it hadn't been for the pain I could see in her optics, I would probably have been afraid of her."

"But I wasn't. And she finally was able to understand me as well. And for the first time since we met she didn't push me away, she returned my affection. That was the night that we bonded to one another." Her lips pulled up in a genuine smile, a strained one, but a real one just the same. "Even with my brothers and sisters I never felt that happy because I knew that even though they loved me, some part of them blamed me for our mother's death. And that was okay because I could accept and understand that, but it also meant that there was always a small space between us that we never dared to cross. But with Moondancer I didn't have to tread lightly around her. After we bonded I was never afraid to run between her pedes, or climb up on her, or ride in her hold. There was no space between us and I liked that."

"And then she died...so soon after that day." Her expression fell into one of even greater dejection and pain. "Another mech had come to retrieve me and they fought...she thought that she had offlined him. But she hadn't, and when she knelt down to pick me up he jumped up and took her helm off with his sword."

His optics snapped shut. Having your own creator beheaded right in front of you... He couldn't imagine it seeing as how he had never had a creator. But he could imagine that the pain would be horrible to live with every day, the memories...

"They took me back after that." She went silent, Energon tears leaking down off of her chin and onto the floor.

A strangled sob managed to force its way out of her mouth. The sound was so foreign coming from her since she was always so fragging strong. And here she was breaking down right in front of them for the first time ever, and he didn't know what to do to stop it.

So he grabbed her in his servo and pressed her against his chassis, right over his spark chamber in the hopes that his spark's thrumming would soothe her. He rubbed her back and whirred low from his vocal processor as her Energon tears leaked onto his chassis.

And she was still trying to fight them back down, still trying to quiet herself down. Still trying to repress it and bottle it up inside to protect herself. "It's ok to cry Lil. I won't judge you for it and neither will Sunny. So you can cry now...it's ok."

"No...ooo," she whimpered.

"Yes. It's ok to cry," he encouraged her gently.

Whatever hold she had on her emotions broke at that moment. Loud shuddering sobs started pouring out of her mouth with no restraint.

The sound drew attention from the other bots in the rooms closest, Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Jazz quickly making their ways into the hangar from the nearby training rooms and even from the rec room. But Sunny got in between them and him defensively before they could come too close.

"Back off!" Every part of his gold form was poised to strike anybot who moved closer.

"What did you two do to her?! She's leaking all over the place!" Ratchet snapped as he tried to bypass Sunny anyways.

But Sunny blocked him and pushed him away not at all gently. "Leave her alone. She's crying because she's upset! Not cause we did anything to her!"

He just ignored all of them so that he could try and comfort her as best he could. Because she really did need it... At least he knew that he and Sunny weren't alone in their concerns for her wellbeing, because Jazz and Ratchet looked more than ready to try Sunny's patience to get to her. They wanted to comfort her as well.

Despite her best efforts she had wormed her way into their sparks already. Just like how she had wormed her way into her femme creator's spark. Only this time she wouldn't lose the bond that she had with them.

Because he wasn't going to let anybot take them from her or her from them. Not anybot. Not even Primus himself could take her away, because she was already in their sparks irrevocably.

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><p>R&amp;R! Please read and review! Favorite, follow etc... Peace!<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

So it's four AM and I didn't sleep at all last night. Usually I get up at like six in the morning and I did yesterday, but for some crazy reason I just could not sleep at all. So here I am almost 22 hours with no sleep and I decided to start typing a chapter cause I got nothing better to do. I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>"Ok so why am I doing this? And better yet why do you two think that this is a good idea?" Lilah sighed as she waited patiently, as patiently as she could considering that she had been forcefully dragged into this, for Ratchet to come around the corner so that the twins could pelt him with purple paint bombs. Why they wanted to do it she had no fragging idea. What she did know was that she was probably going to be stomped to death by Ratchet when he took off after the two slaggers in an attempt to wrench them into stasis lock.<p>

She discreetly slid just a little further back out of the way so that she would not be trampled by any of them. Yup she was not going to be killed by the twin's stupidity. Nope no way whatsoever. And if things came down to blows she was ducking out of the way before Ratchet even thought about wrenching her. Yup. Cause she would be smooshed by one of his wrenches since they were twice as big as she was. Well she could always catch it...yeah cause she was strong enough to lift it easily. But the momentum might make it hard for her to...mutter...mutter...

"YOU LITTLE GUTTER SPARKS!" A loud voice suddenly bellowed, followed closely by the sound of pedes stomping her way.

When she looked up she realized that Sides, Sunny, and Ratchet who was now painted purple and pink were barreling straight towards her. "Oh slag!" She muttered as she turned tail and took off running as fast as her legs would carry her. "WHY DO I GET DRAGGED INTO THIS SLAG EVERY TIME?!" She yelped as she ducked around a corner and narrowly avoided a wrench that had been aimed for one of the twins.

Sides came barreling around the corner with a slightly dented Sunny following right behind him, and an even more irate Ratchet pounding along after them. "Because you're secretly a slagger too!" Sides exclaimed as he picked her up and cradled her to his chassis as he skated down the corridors as fast as he could.

"Umm no I'm not...ok yeah so I am." Couldn't deny that after she had come up with the idea to paint Galloway's hair pink. "But I'm not dumb enough to piss off Ratchet." She pointed out with a loud yelp when another wrench sailed past them. "HEY! I'M UP HERE TOO RATCHET!"

"AND YOU'RE AN ACCOMPLICE TO THEIR PRANK! YOU GET WRENCHED TOO!" Ratchet bellowed angrily before the sound of another wrench sailing through the air was heard, followed by a clang when it collided with something metal.

Sides yelped and stumbled, almost falling off of his pedes from the impact. He managed to catch himself and kept racing away from the still irate medic. "Hatchet you can't throw wrenches at me when I have Lil with me!" Sides snickered and gave her a conspiratory wink.

"Hey! Don't use me for your own sick twisted ploys Sides!"

"I'm not!" Sides grinned at her before ducking around another corner and racing down another corridor. The grin on his face plates only widened for some reason when Sunny came racing around the same corner. "You're being used for Sunny's sick twisted ploys as well."

Sunny raced past Sides and smacked his helm, extracted her from his twin's servos, and raced down the corridor after muttering a gruff, 'fragging idiot'. "If it makes you feel any better Red I'm not using you as a distraction."

She rolled her eyes both at him, and at Sideswipe's indignant shout at being left behind. Idiots. A blush broke out across her cheeks when she thought back to what had happened between them four days ago. She had opened up slightly, spoken about something that she never spoke about, and revealed more about herself then she ever had to anybot before. Moondancer was one of the subjects that was on her list of things that hurt her too much to talk about so it had surprised her that her spark had even opened up enough for her to talk about it at all.

But as the corridors kept flashing by her while the twins ran, she thought back to how they had treated her in recent days. Both of them had spent as much time as possible with her, talking, playing games in Sides' case, or painting and drawing with Sunny. It seemed like they had been trying to keep her mind off of Moondacer completely. She hadn't the spark to tell them that it was all for nothing because she thought of Moondancer every day...all day. Her mommy...

She blinked suddenly and looked around the room when she felt the pounding of Sunny's pedes stop. They were back in the twin's room where they would probably have to hide out until Ratchet took out his anger on another bot...hopefully Hide or something cause it was hilarious to watch those two fight it out.

"Whoo! I thought that he was going to wrench me into stasis again." Sides wiped a trickle of coolant that had beaded at his optic ridge away.

Which she raised her eyebrow at because she was almost positive that it was just weird for a giant metal alien to sweat. But she didn't say anything else because she didn't really want to offend Sides or Sunny. So when Sunny sat her down in front of a small art workspace that he had set up for her she just sighed and started doodling in her sketchbook when her awkward nature suddenly reared it's helm in the silence of the room.

She took her oil pastels out of their case and removed her gloves so that she could smear the colors together the way that she liked them. Once they were laid out in front of her she started drawing a scene of her time when she was with Moondancer. The time that her mommy had taken her to the seashore for the first time.

Her fingers drew neat stokes, smudging them into smooth flowing streaks of color. She drew the ocean waves crashing against the beach in a white spray, she drew the sun setting over the horizon casting an array of oranges and yellows over the dark blue water. She used various shades of pink and purple to make the clouds reflecting the sun's setting light, and then in the center of the picture she drew her and Moondancer sitting together near the waves crashing into the shore.

It was one of her best memories of her mommy. The one where she had fulfilled her promise to take her to see the ocean with her. And she had indeed taken her, and they had watched the water hit the shore together, the seagulls flying across the sky and calling out. And through all of it she had sat curled against her mother's chassis contentedly. And she tried to convey that happiness and contentedness through her picture. She just hoped that she got it right.

Her art work was something that she was very self-conscious over. She showed NO BOT her pictures! EVER! They were windows into her mind, into her spark, and if it truly existed into her soul. So she guarded them more viciously then Ironhide guarded his favorite guns.

Unfortunately she seemed to have forgotten about the two mechs in the room with her until one of them suddenly leaned their large helm over her shoulder to get a better look at what she was doing.

She yelped and slammed her sketchbook shut in embarrassment. "What the frag are you doing?!" She hissed at Sunny angrily.

"Looking at your picture," Sunny answered simply.

"Well don't look at it!" Her hands suddenly clutched her sketchbook to her chest protectively so that neither of them could take it from her. The blush on her cheeks was growing to uncomfortable temperatures at this point, she wasn't sure if it would ever go away.

Sides suddenly appeared over Sunny's shoulder and both of them raised an optics ridge at her. "Why?" Sunny asked her bluntly. Then he gestured over to his paintings scattered around the room haphazardly. "I let you watch me paint on my canvases." He pointed out irritably.

Her mouth fell open and closed several times as she sputtered. "Yeah but...you're actually good at what you paint! I just do this to express myself and it doesn't even look good!" Oh slag what was she even saying?! The blush on her cheeks intensified even more to the point where she was sure that she was starting to look like a blueberry or a purple grape... Either way she ducked her head and bit her lower lip in embarrassment. Yup full awkward mode right here!

There was a sigh from one of them, probably Sunny cause he always sighed and groaned about something. Suddenly a servo was held out in front of her, a bright gold servo. "Let me see it."

But she only clutched at it tighter and shook her head no. "Pit no! I never show anybot my drawings ever!" Intentionally of course! There were times when the twins Anna and Jezz had seen her drawings and stuff since they never could knock before entering somebot's room. Well it was more like Anna dragged Jezz into it and Jezz had to apologize for her sister's stupidity. Anyways only they and maybe Demetri had seen her drawings and each time she had nearly died from embarrassment. So no she was not going to hand her sketchbook over.

"I never show anybot my paintings either." Sunny pointed out again in a much more irritated tone. "Just let me see it femme! Primus this doesn't have to be so fragging hard!" To emphasize his point he slapped his unused servo against his extended palm impatiently.

Sides just looked bemusedly between the two of them, not seeming to really understand completely what the big deal was.

But it was a big deal! What part of SHE DID NOT SHOW ANYBOT, did they not understand? She was pretty sure that she had told Sides at the beginning that she was an antisocial freak, but apparently he had forgotten about it or overlooked it. And Sunny just didn't know anything about it probably...depending on whether or not the bond had been dampened down by Sides by that point. "No."

"You can show me willingly, or I can sneak into your-"

Sides suddenly smacked Sunny over the back of the helm and glared at him. "Don't threaten her Sunny! If she doesn't want to show you don't make her!" Sides yelped suddenly when Sunny smacked him back on his own helm. "OW! The frag was that for?"

The two glared at each other while she took the chance with them being distracted to make her getaway. She slid back and over the side of the large table, onto the floor with a muted almost nonexistent thud, and silently tip toed towards the door.

She grinned just short of the door and turned to disappear through it. Instead of meeting open air she ran into the soft yet firm planes of a more flesh like body. Huffing quietly to herself she stepped back and glared up at Sunny's holoform, sketchbook still clutched securely in her arms.

The holoform reached for her hands then and snatched her sketchbook almost effortlessly from her hands. "HEY! GIVE IT BACK!" She lunged at his holoform and grabbed at HER sketchbook.

Sunny's holoform grinned and suddenly disappeared with her book leaving her scowling. Oh no! He did not break her sketchbook down into nanites so that he could steal it from her!

Sure enough when she spun around Sunny's bipedal mode was holding her drawings in his large servo. She nearly had a fragging spark attack when he flipped the pad open and started peering at the pictures. Slag even Sides was looking at the pages rivetedly. And her spark was racing faster in response as all of her Energon flowed completely to her head and she swayed unsteadily in mortification and utter embarrassment.

She had to keep reminding herself to breathe since her lungs seemed to be struggling to work. Her mouth was dry and wetting it with her glossa was doing absolutely nothing to make swallowing easier. Oh primus! Oh primus! Somebot was looking at her drawings! What should she do? Panic!? Yeah panic sounded like a good idea!

Her breathing hitched sharply, spark seeming to speed up so much that it was making her entire body overheat too fast for her pores to be able to regulate. Oh that's right...her kind could overheat like a bot's could. As soon as she thought that she started wheezing loudly causing the two to look at her sharply.

"Lil?" Sides was the first to come over to her to check if she was alright. His scanners suddenly turned on and drifted over her frame causing him to start suddenly when something pinged on his HUD. "Slag Lil you can overheat?!" He exclaimed suddenly as he grabbed her up quickly so that he could remove her leather jacket and long sleeve shirt to cool her down.

She wheezed in response. Loud. Her core temperature was already rising steadily which concerned her since it usually didn't act up unless she was fighting pretty intensely. But here she was on the verge of fritzing because of her drawing book! And even though she knew that it was going to be embarrassing after it was over with, she opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out panting like a dog to help expel more heat since her body wasn't doing enough on its own.

She didn't even care that she was technically being stripped naked by a giant alien robot...that he and Sunny who was now kneeling beside them would see her scars. She didn't know if the gold mech had seen the scars littering her body yet, and thinking about this made her spark start stuttering more furiously, which in turn made her internal temperature start climbing again.

"Sides what the slag is wrong with her? Is she fragging overheating?" Sunny asked in clear disbelief.

"Yeah she is. Just give her the book back Sunny," Sides snapped quietly to his twin as he rubbed her now bare, scarred, skin with his much cooler than normal digits.

Her book was suddenly held up for her near her face, but her limbs were locked up from overheating too much so she couldn't take it. She panted louder and barely, BARELY, managed to move her arm to take it back. Every move was stiff and she had the distinct feeling that if she had metal joints they would be screaming loudly in protest that she was moving at all.

But that was all secondary once she had her sketchbook back in her arms. Her spark started calming down; in turn making her body slowly start cooling back down, and in turn making her feel a pit of a lot better. Good enough that she leveled a glare at Sunny as soon as she could stop panting like a dog. "Slagger! Don't touch my drawing book you-"

"I don't see what the big deal is about me looking at it." Sunny interrupted her ranting before it could escalate. "It isn't like I would make fun of you or something if the drawings did look like slag."

She gaped at him openly for a moment. Was...was that his way of saying that her drawings were slag? And why did that make her suddenly feel so fragging self-conscious? Self-conscious enough to dip her head down and against her bra clad chest. And taking in the scars all over her body only made it all worse for some reason. Why? She didn't know because she never cared much for her looks or what others thought of her or of what she did. But here she was embarrassed and hurting over one errant comment from a giant alien robot.

There was the distinct sound of one of them smacking the other one and a gruff yell that she discerned as being Sunstreaker. "Sunny that was insensitive!"

"How? I never said that they were bad or anything! I just said that I wouldn't make fun of her if they were!" A sharp bang sounded letting her know that Sunny had reciprocated and smacked Sides back. "They're...pretty good. But as long as her emotions are adequately conveyed in her drawings it shouldn't matter right?"

Sides shook her gently not ceasing until she finally peered up at him in embarrassment. His dark blue optics met her's squarely as he smiled an impish grin at her. "They were really good sweetspark. Sunny just can't say exactly what he thinks cause he's an afthole. We both think they're really good."

A rush of heat suddenly circulated through her body because of the way he was smiling at her. But she had no idea why or even what it meant. And at this point she was too frazzled to really say anything intelligent about it anyways. So she opened her mouth and sputtered like an idiot instead. "No! D-don't say slag like that! It's embarrassing!" She stuttered like an idiot.

Both mechs raised an optics ridge at her, Sides looking confused and Sunny peering at her as if SHE were the alien. Which technically she was even by their standards. "So hum-hybrid femmes don't like to be complimented?" Sunny muttered quietly in confusion.

"Well yeah but..." Oh Primus why have you forsaken me she lamented to herself internally. All of this because Sunny didn't respect boundaries enough to not take what didn't belong to him. And also because she was a paranoid basket case with anger and awkwardness issues like one could not believe. "I...nobot ever...I mean I don't get complimented...EVER."

"So does that mean that you don't want to be complimented then? Or is it just that it makes you uncomfortable?" Sides sat her down once he apparently noticed that she was uncomfortable without her clothing on.

She shrugged her shirt and jacket back on, ignoring the scrutinizing look that Sunny was giving her scars, one hand clutching tightly at her precious black book the whole time. "Both I guess. I haven't been around anybot else for about two and a half centuries so it's weird enough just talking to you guys sometimes... When somebot compliments me or even speaks to me politely I don't know how to react." Usually with stuttering or running away and hiding...something along those lines. Social situations, no matter how small they were always made her want to run for the most part, and even the ones that she didn't run from tended to still make her feel like purging. What could she say? She had never claimed to be anything but a freak.

Neither of them really seemed to know how to respond to that at all. "Well for what it's worth Red..." Sunny started awkwardly optics drifting down to her face and a small blush of embarrassment lighting up his cheek plates. "They uh...do look really good. Don't let anybot tell you otherwise huh?"

Ummm what?! Yeah that was the sound of her mental processor screeching to a complete halt as she gaped, not at all subtly at the gold mech. For a nanosecond she was tempted to power up her battle gauntlets, part to try them out, and part because she was pretty sure that this was an imposter using Sunny's body to infiltrate the Auto bot base to get to her. But she clamped down on that because her sixth senses told her that it was really Sunny, and that he was embarrassed enough as it was. So she coughed out an awkward thanks.

"Awkward..." Sides murmured quietly.

Yeah awkward was right... In fact she was praying to Primus to save her from the awkwardness of having a nice Sunny complimenting her. Yup a little distraction would be appreciated right about now.

Luck appeared to be on her side that day, because a knock sounded at the door astroseconds later. Both twins scowled at the door when she scrambled over to answer it after placing her sketchbook under her jacket in the back of her pants. She punched in the door code and stood there awkwardly while it opened up.

Surprisingly it was Jazz that was standing there grinning at her visor still in place. "Hey Li'l Lady! Prime wan'ed meh t' see if ya cou'd help us wi'h some'in."

"Help? Help with what?" Since she had been here she had pretty much been allowed to goof off completely with no responsibility whatsoever. So she was almost excited to do something constructive for once besides working at the auto shop.

Jazz's grin widened even more as he knelt down and held out a servo for her to climb onto. "Well 'here 'as a' electromagne'ic signa'ure some'here in the outskir's o' Mission City, but ou' scanners can' seem to get a lock on it fo' some reason. So Prime wa' wondering if you'd be able to help out."

She eyed his servo wearily before climbing stiffly onto it. "I can try."

The dark blue visor flashing the saboteur stood up and grinned at the twins. "Comin yo' two? Or do yo' wan' meh ta bring her back after we're done? Which in case yo' are wonderin' will prolly be in a few cycles or some'hing since Prime is pretty sure dat she will nee' to get closer to Mission City to get a mo'e accurate readin'."

The twins exchanged a glance, looked at her simultaneously, then scowled at Jazz. "We'll come too." Sides made his way over and held out a servo for her.

Which she contemplated climbing on since it would ultimately be more comfortable for her since she was still awkward around Jazz. But she wanted to overcome this fear of contact so she smiled and shook her head slowly, communicating what she wanted through her eyes. At least she hoped that she did.

He seemed to understand, and grudgingly dropped his servo.

Neither he or Sunny seemed happy that she was being held by Jazz. But she needed to do this to get over her past, she was sure of it. So she steeled herself as Jazz carried her out of the room and down the corridor to where Optimus's office was.

At first it was tense on her part, and she was scared that she was making Jazz uncomfortable, which in turn only served to make her more uncomfortable. So she wiggled and fidgeted in the smaller mech's servo as she combated her nerves as best she could. Being in a servo before she had come here usually meant bad things, and after three centuries of being subjected to it, and another three of being haunted by those memories it was hard to just forget it.

"Relax sweetlin," Jazz suddenly spoke in a calm soothing voice. "I woul' never hurt ya I swear it. Between ya and me, ya are one of my favorite people, bot or human on base. And sides, neither of the terror twins would let their little femme ge' hurt." His dark blue visor suddenly flashed as his lip plates pulled into a smug grin. Why he was smiling at her like that, she had no fragging idea.

"Oh...sorry Jazz. I just tend to get uncomfortable with physical contact. It's not that I don't...like you or the others, I just I'm not used to being touched anymore." And she wasn't used to being touched in a positive manner at all. It would probably take some time for her to be able to get used to touching and interacting physically on a regular basis anyways.

"Naw it's cool sweetlin I unders'and comple'ely." At that moment Jazz stopped in front of Optimus's doors and pushed a small red button on the circuit console.

"Come in," rang out an astrosecond later. The door slid open as the four of them walked, er rode in her case, into the Prime's office. Optimus smiled gently at her and gestured for Jazz to put her on his large desk where there was a small plush chair...on...the desk.

She giggled quietly at the strangeness of being told to take a seat...on a chair...ON the desk. But she forced it back down for now and climbed off of Jazz's servo so that she could plop down gracefully in her chair. While she was sitting there she focused her wide range sensory skills even though she hadn't really been informed of what exactly she was looking for. Not that she really needed to, any strong electric signature would be sensed easily from hundreds of miles away. She snorted quietly, she wasn't a SS ranked sensory type for no reason.

While she was half concentrating on that Optimus started speaking to her. "I am glad to see that you are feeling better Lilah."

"Yeah I am," she murmured as clearly as she could as she stretched her senses far out, way passed the base, over living signatures, and farther still quite easily. Nothing yet.

"Well I assume that Jazz has explained to you why I required your assistance?"

"Yeah he said something about an electromagnetic signature near Mission City. Said something about your scanners having a hard time locking in on it." Farther, farther, her senses ignited like a raging fire as she took in various electromagnetic energies and processed them with frightening efficiency. A side effect of using much more of her brain than any human, she could stretch her senses much, much farther and process things much faster than any human could ever hope to. But there was still nothing that sounded remotely like what Jazz had mentioned so she pushed out even further. Unfortunately she had to literally blanket her energy over the land starting at her body, then working all the way out as signals were picked up on and sent back to her. It could be tedious at best.

"Indeed. I do not know what it is exactly, but what I do know is that the energy showed up quite strongly on our scanners for a klik, and then it was gone. We cannot yet tell what it is and that is what I was hoping that you might be able to help us with. Not just that, but I was hoping that you might be able to lead us to it since it eludes our scans."

Farther. She was only half listening to him at this point as she searched hundreds of miles in seconds. Shifting thoughts around in her head and filing information away in half the time it took to take it in in the first place. Her brow suddenly furrowed when a sharp, almost painful burning sensation invaded her senses. She focused in on that almost single mindedly, ignoring the mechs that were now staring at her open eyes in wonder.

Not that she noticed as she shifted almost all of her focus on the energy. From this distance she couldn't tell what it was precisely, only that it was radiating a fair amount of electromagnetic energy similar to what the bots gave off. Whether the energy was destructive or not she would need to get closer to ascertain.

"Lil?"

"Red?"

"Li'l Lady? Hello?"

She blinked her eyelids slowly as she came out of her daze. "What? Sorry I was looking."

"Umm at the wall behind Optimus?" Sides snickered at her.

"No I was looking for the energy that he asked me about. From what I can tell at this distance it's about fifteen miles outside of what I'm assuming is Mission city. It appears to be radiating a fair amount of electromagnetic energy similar to one of your sparks, though I can't tell from this far away if it is destructive or not. I need to get closer before I can give a full detailed reading." She muttered quietly to herself at the end of her rant, ignoring the looks of shock she was receiving.

"You can feel it from here?"

Huh? Oh Sunny had asked her something. "What?"

Sunny scowled and asked her again. "I asked if you could really feel it from here?"

"Yeah. It wasn't that hard to find it." Her brows furrowed in confusion. Hadn't their sensors picked it up briefly from this far away? Why was it so hard to believe that she could pick it up from this far away? It wasn't THAT far away... "Electromagnetic signatures are easily picked up no matter where they are. Sometimes I even sense bots entering the atmosphere, well when I try that is." She shrugged like it was nothing really big. Well in her defense she had been able to sense far more than the average bot, human, or even scanner for as long as she could remember. So to her it wasn't even surprising anymore.

All the other mechs could do was stare at her dumbly.

"What?"

Optimus recovered more quickly than the others. "Well if you are feeling up to it we can leave right away." She shrugged again. Nothing better to do.

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><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

The trip to Mission city was fast and quiet, much too quiet for his state of processor. The small femme in his cab had been quietly staring at nothing for the last few breems as they sat parked several miles outside of the city. Apparently she was searching, and when she was searching she just stared ahead while her eyes glowed an iridescent green with a bright blue outlining. Trippy to look at, but also very stunning.

**'Oh shut it slagger! You sound like you're in love with her or something.'** Sunny fake gagged at him.

He shifted and bumped his twin's side with his bond since he was parked further up the hill than Sunny was. **'Shut up Sunny.'**

**'No it's true! I swear you actually like her way more than you should!'** The remark came out sounding far more gruff and embarrassed than normal even for Sunny.

**'Sounds like you don't even really think that we should not like her too much.'** He remarked dryly. But he really couldn't gather too much from Sunny for two reasons, one being Sunny had blocked the bond mostly, and the other being that Lilah had stilled suddenly and tapped on his door to be let out. So he opened his door hesitantly to let her out and rolled after her slowly so that he was close enough to react if something happened. Primus only knew if the cons had sensed the signature as well and were nearby.

It didn't matter that Optimus, Ironhide, Jazz, and Ratchet were there as well. Lilah was their charge to protect, and protect her they would at the first sign of danger. So he shadowed her as she stepped forward and looked down over the cliff with sharp glowing optics.

"I can feel it but...something seems to be muddling the signature..."

"Can you tell what?" Optimus asked through his speakers.

"They seem to be interfering with one another's signatures making it hard to read..." Her shoulders suddenly stiffened as she whipped back around optics fierce. "It's con signatures! But they don't seem to know where 'it' is exactly. I can tell that they're looking though. Three signatures...Barricade, Starscream, and...a big one that I don't...wait...I think that one is Shockwave."

His plating shifted in on itself defensively just hearing that designation spoken. Shockwave, the Decepticon scientist and a master of torture...and experimentation. There had been quite a few close calls between them and Shockwave before the slagger had fled Cybertron millennia ago. What bothered him even more however was the way that Lilah seemed to stiffen when she realized who it was. Had she had encounters with Shockwave as well?

Sunny stiffened even when he caught that thought over the bond. **'Oh primus I hope not! No small femme should ever have to be subjected to that fragging psycho.'**

He grunted an acknowledgement, optics never straying from the small femme's form. She seemed to be almost trembling for some reason... "Lil? Are you okay? Would...would you feel better if you got into my cab?" He hoped that she didn't have another breakdown for some reason because he had learned that he could not stand to see her leak...at ALL! It made him want to either leak or rage until he destroyed whatever had caused her to leak.

"No...I'm ok. The signature of the...shard...it's small and it seems to be a fragment of something... Well anyways it's on the opposite side of the city outskirts from where they are. Umm...if you want I can go down and snatch it quick."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth he was revving his engine angrily. "No! No way! you're not going down there without one of us...no all of us!"

"But it'll be less conspicuous this way Sides. I can get in and out without them finding me if I go by myself. You know being small and fast and all..." Her optics locked on his hood in an intense stare.

Fortunately he was rescued by Optimus. "No we will all go together. You will not be asked to go into a possibly dangerous situation for our cause without our protection."

"But..." Lilah sighed despondently when he drove up beside her and opened his suicide doors for her to get in. She did so reluctantly...very reluctantly, muttering that she was probably going to get blown up inside of one of them anyways.

He peeled out in reverse behind the others, behind Sunny who had waited long enough for Lilah to get into his cab before starting off down the hill. They drove down side by side as he listened to Lil still grumbling to herself in his cab, body still keeping up that furious shaking. "Calm down sweetspark, everything will be ok," he reassured her as he drove through the city outskirts behind the other Auto bots.

She didn't respond to him. She just wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth on the seat.

So he let her be; only interrupting her to ask her for where exactly the signature was at the request of Optimus. And she gave him directions quietly so that he could inform the others of where exactly to go. Though by now he could almost feel the energy himself the closer they drew to it.

It made his spark hum quietly in happiness, and apprehension. Like whatever it was that they were moving towards had the potential to be a very good, or bad thing. It stirred something in him, whatever it was. And Sunny felt it too he could tell from the now open bond conveying similar feelings to him. It was only dampened by the state of their little femme charge who was still shaking in his seat.

No doubt that she had either heard of Shockwave from Moondancer, or had been subjected to him personally. If it was the latter he was amazed that she was still alive at all.

He didn't have the time to keep pondering it when they pulled into a large clearing far outside of the outskirts of the city. He stopped and idled as his scanners searched out any possible danger, and finding none close by he shifted to bipedal mode, his servo holding his precious cargo tenderly. "You okay Lil?" He asked after the others had shifted as well. Only Sunny stayed close by as the others closed in on the spot that Lilah pointed to when prompted.

"Yeah," she murmured quietly. So meek sounding when compared to how she usually sounded, even when she was embarrassed or being antisocial.

His optics watched the others, Optimus standing up with what looked to be a shard of the Allspark in his servo. "How did that even go unnoticed for so long anyways?" Part of him focused on the small shard, part of him focused on rubbing soothing circles on his charge's back, and what was left concentrated on their surroundings.

"Energy isn't always active Sides. Sometimes it lays dormant until it receives a little push. What your scanners probably picked up on yesterday was probably its energy flaring up from dormancy," Lilah explained quietly.

"She's right. Some things are not meant to be found until the time is right. It is Primus's way," Optimus remarked quietly before he tucked the shard safely into his subspace.

"Right." His digits kept working soothing circles, a deep purring rev starting up in his chassis to soothe her. Her stress was starting to stress him out...

"Aww how disgustingly...adorable," a dark malicious voice remarked quietly.

All helms snapped to the side where Shockwave was standing tall and menacing against the tree line with Barricade and Starscream flanking him. His one dark red optic was trained on not him, not the other bots who now had weapons drawn, but at the now cowering form of his charge. His femme. He growled and released his own wrist blades that stretched out a good six feet or so passed his reach. "Stop staring at her you fragger!" He snapped angrily as he slid his hold open slowly.

Shockwave merely blinked his single red optic and sneered. What he said next caused every single bot, even his own faction to freeze. "No I think not...I can look at my femme creation all that I want. Now if you would please Autoscum, hand my sparkling over to me. We have much to get reacquainted over don't we my sweetling?"

Lilah whimpered and clutched at him tightly, like she was afraid that he would actually hand her over to Shockwave. His processor was locked up in shock, but he wasn't stupid enough to hand her over, not on his fragging spark! "It's ok Lil. We're not gonna give you to him. But for now I need you to go into my hold where it's safe okay?" Their optics met briefly before she nodded her acceptance, he shoved her into his hold and slid his chest plates closed.

"It doesn't matter if you hide her from me...I will get her back by force if I must." Shockwave smiled maniacally, powering up his cannon and pointing it at them.

They all tensed, Energon racing through their systems in preparation for battle. They were NOT going to hand Lilah over to Shockwave! No slagging way in the pit!

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><p>R&amp;R Cliffhanger! Sorry but I'm evil! And what did you think about the little twist at the end? Please let me know in your reviews! Until next time!<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Thanks to **lizziecats** for her awesome review! It really made my day when I read it! Thanks also to **DarkshadowXsunny-sides**- yes it is most unfortunate, and it makes for a good plot twist. **SunstreakersSquishy2.0**- Yeah I love cliffies cause I'm evil lol. **SweetSpark22**- Neither would I. And yes her life did suck. Anyways on with the story! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Major drama and fluff!

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><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

He was painfully aware of the horrible quivering of the small femme in his hold as he stared at the three cons opposite of them. Nobot had made a move since he had hidden his charge and he had a mind to just take her and run from battle since even in his hold she could become injured if he was jostled too much.

Before he could truly contemplate running Barricade lunged at him clawed digits aimed at the breaks in his armor over several of his sensitive neck cables.

The black and white police cruiser slammed into him making him almost tumble to the ground from the force. At the last astrosecond he turned and flung the con to the side at Sunny who looked eager to have a go at him. The two slammed into each other sending them flying through several trees and out of sight.

Sunny would be all right, he wasn't worried at all about his twin being offlined by Barricade. Slagger wasn't even on the same level as his gladiator brother.

The clearing exploded into a shower of gunfire as soon as he turned back to face Starscream, who had somehow crossed the distance between them in the brief astrosecond that he had looked away, and had his wrist blasters aimed at his face plates.

At the last second he ducked under the spray of bullets and rolled to the side, just as Ironhide powered up his leviathan cannons and returned fire on Starscream. He came out of his roll and raised his swords in a cross form to block Shockwave's servo from slamming into his helm.

The large con narrowed his one red optic at him and brought up his cannon point blank. "If you will not give her to me willingly I will take her by force," he growled low.

There was a flash of silver over his helm as Jazz tackled Shockwave just enough to make the con stumble back, he jumped up and backed away as Optimus moved to assist the saboteur in diverting Shockwave's attention.

**'Take Lilah and run Sideswipe. We will all catch up as soon as we handle the Decepticons.'**

He gritted his denta and nodded at their leader's back before he turned and took off running through the trees in the opposite direction. He didn't know where he was supposed to go, just anywhere but there he guessed, he could only hope that there weren't any more cons hanging around.

His pedes tore up dust and debris as he ran blindly. Away from the sounds of gunfire, and subsequently away from the danger to his femme...charge. He only hoped that there weren't any cons around that were waiting to intercept him since it seemed odd to him that only three cons showed up to face a group as large as theirs.

There was a rapping on his hold covering. He slowed down and slid it open slightly so that Lilah could speak to him.

"Sides there's two more con signatures ahead of us. A pair of seekers."

Thundercracker and Skyward probably. "Ok Lil I got it. Just hang tight for now and I'll get us out of here." He slid his hold most of the way closed so that she would be able to speak to him, as well as making sure that she was mostly secure. It could get hot in his chassis, especially with his engines working as hard as they were.

He turned on his wheels and took off to the left, away from Skywarp and Thundercracker. At this point he wasn't going to risk running into them since he had her with him. Thundercracker was one thing to take on, and Skywarp didn't scare him either, but the latter was able to teleport which made him a master of sneak attacks. He had no doubt that the purple con would get behind him and stab him in the back at the first chance.

And he wasn't willing to compromise his hold, of the precious femme holed up in it. He didn't even question why he was referring to her the way that he was, because he knew that some part of him viewed her as more than a charge, more than...well he wasn't sure what. But he did know that she was his and Sunny's by default. That meant that no one was going to harm her while they were around.

"Sides they're chasing us."

Sure enough when he concentrated his audio receptors he could hear the sound of their alt modes breaking the sound barrier far too close for comfort. Looks like he wasn't going to be able to get away like he had hoped. He weighed his options before opting to fight since it was not favorable to be caught from behind.

He spun around and slid his hold shut as the two seekers alt modes broke down in front of him, both free falling to the ground to land in identical crouches.** 'Sunny are you finished with Barricade by any chance?'** He pulled his swords up in front of him and snarled at the two cons in warning while he waited for any kind of response from his twin.

**'I'm already on my way to your position Sides. Give me two kliks!'**

**'Better hurry cause Skywarp and Thundercracker just showed up.'** The former was sneering at him already, or more specifically at his hold hatch.

It made him tense but only for a brief instant because things suddenly exploded into chaos. Skywarp suddenly disappeared from his sight as Thundercracker aimed his shoulder cannons at him and opened fired.

He threw himself to the side to avoid the shot, and the con that suddenly appeared behind him, barely dodging Skywarp's sword aimed for his helm. He flipped up onto his servos sliding back across the ground and opened fire on Skywarp and Thundercracker with his wrist cannons.

Skywarp teleported away to avoid the plasma bullets, but his shots managed to find purchase in Thundercracker's shoulder before the seeker was able to dodge him. He gave no time for Thundercracker to recover as he crossed the distance between them and aimed his sword at the seeker's throat.

At the last second Thundercracker ducked down slamming shoulder first into his hold and forcing a pained groan from his mouth. He felt his hold hatch come loose as he was sent flying up over the blue mech's helm. But it held from flying open even when he caught himself on one servo and managed to flip himself over.

Lilah's voice suddenly screamed at him from inside his hold. Loud and shrill. Panicked. "BEHIND YOU SIDES!"

He brought his sword up over his helm barely catching a blade meant to cleave him down the middle. He hadn't even sensed the fragger behind him, if not for Lilah he would've been offlined there, as much as it hurt his pride to say that.

Thundercracker came rushing at him again making him shoot up to throw Skywarp off of him. His wheels screeched in protest when he rushed to the side to avoid another plasma shot aimed for his chassis. These two didn't seem to have much concern about the femme that they were supposed to be stealing from him. It pissed him off that they kept aiming for his dented chassis where she was hiding.

Not that it would take much to rip it open at this point...

**'Where are you Sunny?'** He growled through their bond while Thundercracker opened fire on him again. He threw himself behind a cluster of trees for cover as he contemplated the best course of action to take. If it was just him he would rip them apart, but he had somebot to protect...and he would not risk her safety because of his bloodlust.

A plasma shot hit the tree right beside him causing him to jump to his pedes and take off in the opposite direction. **'Sunny where are you?'**

**'Almost there! Barricade came after me again and I had to put him in his place again. Fragger took off before I could offline him though. I'll be there in a klik just hang on Sides.'**

Easy for him to say when he wasn't the one getting double fragged by Skywarp and Thundercracker. The two of them were turning the entire forest into one massive battlefield, with no care for anybot that might be wandering around in them. Lennox was going to have his servos full with covering this up since he was sure that the organics in the city nearby could see the shots going off.

"SIDES DUCK!" Lilah suddenly screamed.

Before he could something slammed into him from behind taking him down to the dirt below. His chassis gave a horrible groan as it was pushed further in, but he ignored the pain and flipped Skywarp over by rolling onto his side suddenly. He powered up his shoulder cannon and fired it at Skywarp point blank before he could teleport reveling in the pained yelp he got in return as the purple seeker stumbled up from him and fell back.

It was a short lived victory when Thundercracker suddenly pinned him down using his knees to pin his arms. He struggled to free himself as the blue seeker reached for his dented chassis to pry it open.

No! They weren't going to take her from him! His struggles only increased in ferocity when those cursed digits hooked around the dented metal and proceeded to slowly, and painfully, rip it open. He just barely managed to stifle a scream from the pain.

His optics watched in horror as Thundercracker reached into his chassis, into his hold, reaching for his charge...his femme.

The blue seeker started suddenly when a flash of red and black came shooting out of his chassis like a rocket, blur spurs of energy swirling madly around her.

"GET OFF OF HIM YOU SLAGGING AFTHOLE!" Lilah roared as she swung her gauntlet covered fist at the seeker's cheek plates.

There was a brief moment when time seemed to slow down for him. Sunny came shooting through the tree to his right at the same exact moment that Lilah's fist connected with Thundercracker's face with a loud screeching bang.

He started in surprise when the blue seeker was thrown, literally flung back into Skywarp from the sheer force radiating from one punch from the small femme. She seemed...almost like she was ethereal to him at that moment. Fierce narrowed green optics, billowing red hair, angry flushed cheeks.

Like...a creature created by Primus himself. A warrior with no remorse or sympathy for the being in front of her. He could feel that she had even garnered Sunny's complete and utter attention in that moment, a first for anybot besides maybe him or Optimus.

Both he and Sunny snapped out of their stupid staring when Skywarp snarled and disappeared suddenly. He shot up onto his pedes and forcefully, painfully, closed his chest plates as he rushed over towards her.

Their pedes pounded against the dirt below, echoing in their own audio receptors as the sheer drive of battle and fear made them have something akin to the equivalent to tunnel vision, only for hearing instead.

Skywarp suddenly appeared in front of her servo raised to strike her down.

They weren't going to make it in time! All he could see was Skywarp's servo jerk down to squish her.

And he felt his spark give it's equivalent to a scream of terror that she was going to be killed.

And then everything seemed to stop when Skywarp slammed his servo down on her kicking up dust and debris all over the place. His pedes almost went out from under him when his spark lurched dizzingly in pure unadulterated fear and distress.

Because there was no way that even she could survive a direct, full powered smack from one of their kind. A rage that he had never felt before consumed him making him see red as he closed in on the con that had taken their femme from him.

A loud dangerous snarl burst from his mouth plates. In his rage he didn't even register the startled gasp from Skywarp, and neither did Sunny.

But what they saw when the dust settled did make them both release shocked vents.

Because Skywarp's servo was buried wrist deep into the ground right beside a completely unharmed Lilah. It was obvious that the con had no idea what the slag had happened to make him miss his attack. And he froze alongside Sunny in complete shock at what had transpired.

Lilah giggled. Dark. Deadly. Soft. Completely misleading. "I tweaked your electromagnetic aura." She commented in a mocking tone. She turned and shoved her fist into one of the joints in Skywarp's armor with a dark twisted smile playing at her lips. "Don't just sit there too shocked to speak..." Her eyes narrowed a split astrosecond before she released a large blast of energy directly into Skywarp's lower arm.

The metal boiled and melted, exploding in a shower of metal scraps as the seeker gave an almighty howl of agony.

"Please don't cry." Lilah mocked him as she kicked his splattered cables and metal shards around haphazardly. "It's just as embarrassing for me as it is for you when you do that."

"You glitch! Filthy fragging glitch! I'm going to enjoy testing out Burstimpact's theories on my own after Shockwave gets his servos on you!" Skywarp roared.

There was a slight shiver in her frame, a small twitch and shudder that let him know that she was suddenly scared of something the seeker had said. He snapped out of it and rushed forward again to grab her when he noticed Thundercracker moving towards them.

His servo clamped around her just as Thundercracker grabbed Skywarp and dragged him away. Neither he nor Sunny made a move to go after them, instead opting to look their...charge, over for injuries.

Besides some bruising from where she had been jostled in his hold there did not seem to be anything seriously wrong with her. Once he was sure that she was as well as she could be he released a sigh of relief and brought her up so that he could nuzzle her against his face plates.

"I'm so stoked that you're not hurt Lil," he purred happily, as did his spark in his chassis. For a moment they had thought that she had been killed, so this was the greatest relief that they could have hoped for. She was safe. She was as well as could be. And she was here in his servos where she would always be protected.

Lilah sighed and shifted her gauntlets down at the push of a button. Her optics stayed locked on him or more specifically his dented and ripped chest plates sadly. "Sides...you should have let them take me. Look at what they've done to your chassis," she whispered quietly.

"What?" The word was just a low mutter of disbelief. His optics seemed to draw in on her so hard that he could clearly see the sweat beading at her brow. "What did you just say?" He repeated with as much disbelief and irritation as was slowly building up inside of him. Hand her over to the cons? To preserve himself? NO WAY IN PIT!

"Your chassis is torn open." She repeated quietly looking away from them in what was obviously guilt. "You should have let them have me; you wouldn't have gotten hurt that way."

**'Is...is she serious right now?!'** Sunny growled out through their bond.

All he could do was shake his head slowly in disbelief. Leave her behind? Hand her over to be experimented on to protect himself? What did she think that he was? A con himself? Not only would he never, EVER, hand her over to a con, he would never aid them in any of their endeavors. It went against everything that he stood for as an Auto bot.

"Lil I never would have handed you over to them!" he told her sternly.

"But-but! Look at you!"

"This isn't serious as long as Ratchet mends it sooner rather than later. They just ripped my hold open sweetspark; they didn't get into the spark chamber so I'm ok." Not counting the horrible pain that having your hold torn open caused. But he would not say that to her because she was already feeling bad enough as it-

She glared at him as if reading his thoughts. "I can feel the pain you slagger! So don't say that it's nothing! Don't tell me that it's not serious! Sometimes you two seem to forget that I was raised by another bot, so I know what kinds of wounds are dangerous to you," she hissed with a look of what he was almost sure was hurt in her optics.

"But it isn't too bad compared to what he's had before Red," Sunny pointed out gruffly. "He'll be just fine as soon as we take him to Ratchet. I already commed the others and gave them our coordinates so they should be here soon."

Lilah huffed and looked away towards the tree line. Closed off. Defensive. Guilt ridden. "Sweetspark listen to me for a moment okay?" She didn't turn to him to give him her attention. The defensive shell never wavered or fell. "Sweetspark I know that you might not believe this but..." He searched for the right words to say what he felt he needed to. It was just so hard because he didn't know what exactly she was to him, to them, so he didn't know what more was expected of him. But he did know that he felt something for her, more than friendship and he was helpless to stop it. So she deserved his honesty at least. "I...I'd protect you to my dying vent Lil. I don't know why but you've become so fragging important to me and...and even Sunny..."

Sunny huffed at him and muttered something about being a mushy slagger who spoke too much about other's feelings.

"So we want to protect you. It isn't that we are being forced to do it! We want to now, and to be truthful I wanted to from the beginning. From the time that we first met there was something in you, something that just drew me in. You broke down not just my shells and barriers, but Sunny's as well, and won our spark over." The more he spoke to her of what he was feeling, the more and more he was understanding why he felt these things. Somehow, somewhere along the way...he had developed feelings for her. And that scared him because he never ever had feelings like this for a femme of his own race. They were friends, allies, often times lovers, but never did he...love or care for them as a potential spark mate.

So now what was he supposed to do? Stay here with her and let it stay inside of him? Or tell her? How do you tell one of the only bot/human hybrids that you...liked her like that? "Lil I...we protect you because we want to. So please don't blame yourself for this, and don't feel guilt that it happened. It's the price that I am more than willing to pay a thousand times over to ensure your safety," he finished honestly.

Something flashed across her optics when she turned and finally gave him her complete attention. Something unreadable to him. Something that made a trickle of fear edge into his spark.

There was pounding nearby as the others rushed into the clearing at last. And Lilah was snatched from his servos by Sunny so that Ratchet could patch him up. But his optics were trapped on her hunched over form in Sunny's servo. What was she thinking?

* * *

><p>(Lil's POV)<p>

It was late at night. She lay in her bed unable to sleep as the day's events played over and over again in her head.

Sideswipe had been hurt protecting her, and no matter how much he played it off as nothing serious she knew that it easily could have been. It made her feel so fragging guilty that she just wanted to get away. Away from him and Sunny, from the other Auto bots, so that they didn't get hurt or even killed protecting her.

Because she had seen it in Sideswipe's optics when he told her that she had won his spark over, he would die for her if he had to. That look reminded her so much of Moondancer that it made her spark clench in agony. Agony that would not dissipate...

No matter what she did. No matter how much she hoped that it would. Because he was willing to die for her, and she didn't know how to feel about that. You didn't die for someone that you didn't care about personally... And you didn't get upset when a person you didn't care for wanted to die for you. So that told her that they cared for each other more than was healthy for them.

What she was feeling for him, not just him but Sunny, was familiar to her. Familiar and very, very painful. She remembered when she had first felt this for Demetri...how scared she had been to admit that she desired him. That...that she loved him.

Opening up after what had happened to her had been so hard...to let the weight of that life, that world slowly lift off of her shoulders... She had felt so fragging free for the first time in her life! And she had loved him so deeply for helping her to escape from the pain.

A single tear slipped down her cheeks.

And then everything had come crashing down. She had come back to the shared house and caught him...with Miata in their bed. A part of her spark had...just died. Love was the stepping stone for hate...and she had almost, ALMOST, taken that first step in hating them.

She hadn't though. She had simply turned around and walked out without even saying a word to the two of them. Pit she was sure that they hadn't even realized that she was there to see it. And she had left them and the others behind so that she didn't have to face their betrayal before her spark was ready.

Yes she had also left because the cons were furiously hunting her down, but before being witness to that she had been torn between leaving and staying. Because of him. He had given her the push that she needed to become what she was today.

But now she was slowly making the same mistakes all over again. And she tried so hard to tell herself that she didn't care about him, about either of them. But she knew that it was a lie. Somehow in their time together they had wormed their way into her wounded spark. And that scared her, because once you acknowledged that you were pretty much at their mercy. Because you knew that you couldn't just turn your back and walk away intact if something bad happened, and you had to admit that if it did you would be hurt.

And as somebot that had always avoided others just for that very reason, it scared her immensely. She didn't want to love again. Loving hurt. Loving ensured that your spark could be broken by the one that had taken it from you. The real question now was...did she actually love the two?

Or did she just hold some affection for them? If it was just affection she had a chance to get away with her spark intact.

And even if she didn't...she was going to run anyways. She frowned into her pillow then. If that was how it was...then why sit there and think about it so hard? Wasn't she going to do the same thing regardless of what she was feeling?

So why not just run now? Run while they were all still in recharge?

She opened her eyes and sat up in her bed so that her legs were dangling over the side. The cool surface of the cement floor met her feet sending a shiver through her. But she ignored it as she got up from her bed and opened her dresser drawer as quietly as possible.

She grabbed a pair of black leather pants, a long sleeve purple shirt, and a black leather jacket that cut off at her midriff. As soon as she had it picked out she changed into it swiftly.

If she was going to do this it had to be now. She slid some black socks onto her feet and donned her black riding boots before she stood and pulled her hair up into a bun. She grabbed a small duffel bag and stuffed as much of her clothing into it as she could for the trip. Primus knew that she would need it.

Focused. Intent. She knew what she was doing and what it would mean for her and for them. No more connections. They would probably not trust her ever again if they caught her trying to run away. But she was prepared to take that risk to protect them.

She crept to her door slowly and opened it, peering out into the corridor to check that nobot was there. Nothing in sight so she slid out the door and ramped her sensory skills up so that she could feel anybot approaching her. Her feet moved across the floor silently down the corridors as she peeked around corners and allowed her senses to hone in on her surroundings.

Nothing so far. Good.

But as she neared the main hangar she could feel two bot signatures right beside the door. Optimus and...Ratchet if she was right and she always was. So she bit her lip and crouched down against the wall to wait for them to give her a clear opening.

At this point she knew that they were probably going to see her regardless of how careful she was. Their scanners would pick her up even in passing so she needed to be quick. If she got outside into the open she was sure that she could outrun the bulky mechs alt forms so she needed to bide her time.

They seemed to be speaking about Sideswipe's injuries from what she could tell. It instantly made her feel guilty again, and she had to forcefully bite her lip to keep from berating her own stupid self.

"I am thankful that his injuries were not as severe as they could have been." Ratchet groused to Optimus with the permanent scowl on his face plates. "At least he was injured doing something worthwhile this time, instead of running head first into battle like a buffoon."

Optimus sighed and offered the CMO a small wry smile. "Yes I am in agreeance with that. But really my friend, you should have expected such a reaction from him in regards to her."

She huffed and concentrated in on them again. What the slag did Optimus mean by that statement? Sure Sideswipe and Sunstreaker liked her as a friend and held obvious friendly affection for her, but that was all that it was.

Her spark gave a pained beat because it wasn't the same for her. She cared too much about what they thought, about what they were feeling, for it to be friendship. Or maybe she just didn't know because she hadn't had a friend in centuries.

"What are you doing Red?"

She jumped clear off of the ground and spun around to face a tired looking Sunstreaker. What...how...where did he...how did he?! "Uhhh I was eavesdropping on Optimus and Ratchet for fun." She cursed and slid her bag further back behind her shoulder when she knew he had already seen it. Another pointless action on her part.

Sunny scowled at her bag pointedly. "And you need a bag to do that?" He commented irritably.

"Umm yeah sure do!" Her eyes glanced at the main hangar to judge the distance, the placement of the other two mechs, and her chances of making it out if she just ran for it. If she could just bypass Optimus to get to the door she was sure her chances were at least fifty-fifty.

Her eyes drifted back over to Sunny and locked on his optics. This was all for the best right? Her choice wasn't wrong was it?

No it wasn't. So she turned and ran as fast as she could, pounding behind her told her that Sunny had given chase. But his bipedal mode wouldn't be able to catch her if she could just make it to the door!

"OPTIMUS! RATCHET! STOP HER!" Sunny bellowed catching the other mech's attention.

Both of them turned to her in surprise, but before one of them could bend to grab her she slid down onto her back like a baseball player and slid between Optimus's legs.

"What the slag?" She heard Ratchet mutter as she came up on her feet and raced for the door again.

There were now two more sets of pedes pounding after her as she closed in on the door to the hangar. She was going to make it as long as she kept moving! They couldn't keep up with her speed in bipedal mode!

But she couldn't resist looking back at Sunny one more time as he chased her across the hangar floor. His blue optics were furious, chassis heaving, a scowl was pulling at his face plates. But she actually thought that he was beautiful.

As soon as she reached the hangar door she turned away and slid through the small opening. Her feet kicked up sand as soon as they hit the desert floor.

She heard the hangar door crash open followed by a sharp cursing. She chanced a look back at her pursuers just in time to see Sunny shift down to his Lamborghini alt mode and tear after her.

That was the least of her worries when she ran face first into something very...hard. She hit the ground from the force with which she hit whatever it was.

"What the frag?" A gruff voice muttered.

She rubbed her face and glared at Ironhide angrily with her mouth opened and set to cuss him out. It came out as a startled squeak when a servo roughly plucked her off of the ground. A bright gold servo. Fraggit all to pit.

"What the pit are you doing Red?" Sunny leveled her with his optics which were set into an irritated glare. "Why the slag did you run away from me?"

"Put me the frag down Sunny! I'm technically a civilian and that means that you can't force me to stay!" She growled through clenched teeth as she thrashed in his hold. Unfortunately he was holding her so that she could barely even wiggle and that meant that she had no room to build up any sort of momentum.

His optics narrowed on her. "Actually I can, and so can Optimus since you're technically a hybrid. That makes you an exception to that rule," he snipped derisively.

Optimus, ever the peace keeper stepped forward and placed a gentle servo on Sunny's shoulder. "Let us all calm down for a moment." His optic landed on her, understanding and forgiveness nestled in them. "Now Lilah would you please tell us why you were trying to escape from the base?"

"Because I can," she snapped angrily, still thrashing in Sunny's surprisingly gentle servo.

"That is not an acceptable answer sweetling," Ratchet muttered quietly. His optics widened and he suddenly looked away as if he was embarrassed. "I mean Lilah."

She scowled at the medic and growled at all of them, but a sudden commotion nearby cut off the retort on her tongue before she could utter a word of it. Because she recognized the voice calling out to them as Sideswipe and she didn't want to see the look on his face when he realized what she had tried to do.

So when he suddenly pushed passed Ratchet and Ironhide to stop at Sunny's side she looked away in from his welded chassis in shame and guilt.

"Sweetspark? Sunny what are you doing to her? What happened?"

"She was trying to escape from the base."

She didn't need to be looking at them to know that both of them were staring her down. Nor did she need to hear the startled sound that Sideswipe made to know that he was hurt. No her empathic ability suddenly flared letting her feel how very hurt and upset that thought made him.

"Why?" Sideswipe's servo plucked her from Sunny's so that he could hold her at face level. And when she refused to look at him he used his other servo to make her turn to face him. "Why were you trying to leave Lil? Did we do something to upset you?"

"No." Had they done something to upset her?! Him even thinking that made her spark feel like somebot was stabbing into it! How could he think for even one instant that they had done something to upset her? No she wasn't upset at them, she was upset at herself.

"Then why?" Sideswipe pressed in an urgent tone. When her gaze turned towards his chassis where the weld still was he followed her line of sight and gasped quietly. "Oh sweetspark please don't tell me that you were thinking about leaving because of this!" He focused his optics on her, namely on the way that she flinched back because he was right.

But she didn't want to admit that he was right out loud, so she just looked down so that her side bangs fell over her eyes. She knew that her posture gave away what she was really thinking and feeling, but she just couldn't help her reaction.

"Lil..." Sideswipe sighed.

She started when his face plates were suddenly nuzzling over her cheek gently. A blush broke out across her face as she squeaked in embarrassment. "Wha-what are you doing?"

"Comforting you," Sides murmured. His servo started running up and down her back gently working out all of the tension that had built up in her.

"Why?"

He stopped and pulled away from her face to look at her. His optics lit up and her abilities let her get a good feel for what he was feeling right now. Happiness, worry, concern, and a strong yearning.

"Because sweetspark..." His cheek plate suddenly erupted into a blush as he stuttered to himself for a moment. So unlike him and how he usually was. "Well because I...I care about you. And uh...when somebot cares for somebot else they nuzzle each other."

Ironhide made a gagging noise, Ratchet raised an optic ridge, and Optimus just smiled knowingly. And Sunny's reaction startled her more than anything else.

"Pit Sides! Just come out with it already or I will!"

The sudden outburst startled not only him but Sideswipe as well. Both of them looked at him wide eyed and gaped openly at him. "Umm Sunny I thought that you-"

Sunny suddenly growled and grabbed her from Sides' servo to once again dangle her in front of his face plates. Only this time he didn't just glare at her, he leaned down and pressed his warm metal lips against her face since he couldn't just get her lips because his lips were bigger than her head.

She squeaked in embarrassment and mortification. Ummm what was even happening here?! Was...was Sunny kissing her with his bipedal mode?! And oh my Primus why wasn't she pushing him away from her?

"Hey no one said anything about kissing her Sunny! I should've gotten the first once since I liked her first!" Sides protested with an obvious pouting edge to his voice.

She squeaked again when Sunny released her gaping form...she was pretty sure that she heard Ironhide gagging again, along with awkward coughing from Optimus and Ratchet. But she was snatched from Sunny before she could glare at the idiot mechs for even existing.

Anything she could have said was cut off when Sides mirrored his twin's own actions and pressed his mouth plates over her face. The blush on her cheeks heated up to the point that she felt like her head might explode. But she couldn't help but to notice that she wasn't terrified of being touched by him like this...either of them.

That didn't mean that she was particularly happy when his mouth slid open so that his glossa could pass over her face.

"SIDESWIPE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! DID YOU JUST FRAGGING LICK MY FACE? AND WHAT'S UP WITH YOU TWO KISSING ME ANYWAYS?!" She stuttered out after pushing him away.

Sides furrowed his optic ridges and cocked his head to the side adorably. "Umm that's how humans show affection to their femmes yes? It's the same for mechs and femmes as well."

Her jaw dropped with a dumb, "Huh...uh what?" managing to escape. Oh yeah real intelligent Lilah! How did she go from trying to escape from these idiots to being kissed and having Sideswipe pretty much come onto her?

The red mech shook his helm at her in amusement. "Lil uhhh...say something Sunny!" Sides suddenly snapped when his mouth took to hanging there limply after a moment.

Sunny grunted and turned narrow optics on her. "Sides is in love with you."

Sides sputtered at the same time that she did. "WHAT?!"

"I...Sunny!" Sides groaned in defeat. "I don't know if I love her! I just like her!"

Sunny grunted again and sighed. "No I like her! You!" He pointed at Sides to single him out. "Love her. Trust me I can feel it in our spark."

Sides lifted his helm, blushing furiously, and definitely not looking like the definite player that she knew he was underneath all of the charm and humor. "That means you do too!"

"No. It means that I'm going to end up feeling it because you're a fragging dumbaft!" Sunny argued.

She just looked back and forth between the two of them bewildered. They were NOT having a discussion on whether or not they loved her, or liked her right in front of her. Yup they were! And she had no idea of how to react at all! So she looked over Sides' shoulder and peered at Optimus wide eyed.

He just shrugged and smirked at her while mouthing. "Good luck."

So she turned back to the still arguing mechs who had apparently forgotten what had started this mess in the first place in favor of their argument. This was NOT HAPPENING TO HER! How did one respond to a confession from alien robots?!

So she did what any smart hybrid would do...she fainted so that she wouldn't have to deal with it.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! I thought that the confession would fit since they saved her from her fragged up creator, and also since I've been hinting at stuff for the last few chapters. I love romance and I suck at slow builds so sorry if it was sudden! Anyways until next time!<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Here's another chapter for you guys! Sorry no reviews for today! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Lots of awkwardness and fluff! This is like two chapters in one so it's gonna be pretty long!

* * *

><p>Lilah groaned and raised a hand to her aching head to try and soothe the dull pain there. She had the strangest dream that Sunny and Sideswipe had kissed her and admitted to liking her or something last night. And they had even kissed her, well as much as a giant robot alien could kiss somebot when their lips were bigger than her head. But it had felt nice to her in her dream.<p>

"Well that's all it was...just a dream." She yawned and sat up in her bed stretching all of the kinks in her neck out that came with sleep. Damn she was so stiff! Her eyes blinked of their own accord as she looked around her room eyes landing on a bag on the bottom of her bed.

"What the slag?" She muttered after she pulled the bag to her lap to sort through the contents. Clothes and other necessary supplies? Why the pit was there a duffel bag filled with her stuff on her bed?

Her eyes widened as her 'dream' came back to her more fully. Only it apparently wasn't a dream because this was the same bag from her dream...and the same articles of clothing were in it. She gaped openly at the items contained within as her cheeks lit up in a furious blush.

So her dream had been real? It...Sunny and Sides had really been arguing over whether or not they loved her? Oh my primus this was so goddamn embarrassing that she wanted to open up a hole in the floor and disappear into it! And the worst part was that she didn't know how she was supposed to face them now!

She was scared to be around them now that she knew for a fact that their feelings were more then what she had been trying to convince herself of. Some part of her had known, deep down inside she had felt the romantic affection but she had been trying to downplay it to preserve herself. Just as she had been trying to downplay her own emotions as well.

The real question was what to do now?

She got out of her bed and went through her morning ritual of showering and dressing herself while she thought about it. She could acknowledge and accept it all for what it was, and in doing so she would have to face her previous betrayal with Demetri. Or she could act like nothing had happened between them at all, protecting herself from the possible sparkbreaks that would possibly occur.

She dressed herself in a dark blue long sleeve shirt that had sleeves with holes cut out for her thumbs so that they were more like gloves. Her outfit also consisted of black skin tight jeans that showcased her long strong legs. To finish it all off she threw her hair up into a bun that was held up by a braid wrapped around it.

So what to do? She mused as she flopped back down onto her bed. "Face them...or avoid them? That is the question." Sighing deeply she played with the long strands of her bangs to distract herself and to give her hands something to do. All in one night she had been forced to accept her feelings...and then she had been forced to see the twins in a new light.

That meant that she couldn't just hang out with them as friends anymore without the awkwardness of knowing that they liked her. And now she couldn't just pass off what her abilities tried to tell her, because she had been slapped, LITERALLY, in the face by reality. Which she was not at all happy about.

It wasn't that she was upset or disgusted that they...felt something for her more than friendship. It was just that she had been hurt before by a male that she had thought she would sparkbond to. So how could she accept this, what was being offered to her right now, without destroying what was left of herself?

And how could they accept that she had been here before? That she had been betrayed and was expecting them to do it to her as well, without letting it destroy them? Was it even possible? This whole relationship that was now taunting her? Just yesterday she had been completely ignorant in her own mind if not in spark, and now she didn't know what to do. She couldn't hide behind her shell anymore. That was very scary for her.

No...she shook her head back and forth as the fear and pain gripped her spark. She couldn't do this again without destroying the persona that she had made for herself. And she wouldn't be hurt by a male again...or males in this case. Because if experience had taught her anything it was that males could not be trusted to be faithful to their femmes, and she already knew that both Sides and Sunny were experienced mechs that had many lovers before. Players. Use them then lose them type mechs.

It hurt her to imagine that they might in fact be planning on doing that to her even if her spark and powers told her that they weren't. But she just couldn't believe all of what her 'heart' was telling her. Because one's spark could lead them astray despite what anybot else might believe. It had done it to her once...it would do it again.

So she would just ignore it when they did anything affectionate with her be it nuzzling, kissing which she wasn't planning on letting happen, or even holding her. Everything would have to be kept strictly platonic between them on her part, and maybe they would see that she was...that she was not interested in them like that.

Her spark lurched at the thought... She clutched at her chest and gritted her teeth against the pain that was consuming her. Why did everything have to be so primus damn hard? Why did she have to war with herself every step of the way on everything? And why did she have to doubt the truth of the things that she felt from others? What good was having her abilities when she didn't believe what they were telling her?

She sighed and got up from her bed to make her way from her room and to the training room where she was sure that Ironhide was waiting for her. Shooting practice...yay!

As she left her room and walked down the halls she kept an eye peeled for either twin but she was pretty sure that they were still in recharge this early. Especially after the events of yesterday with her...creator. She still couldn't believe that Sides had been so adamant in protecting her from him that he would allow himself to be hurt like he was.

It made the permanent guilt that she always felt every astrosecond grow to the point that she felt like her spark would burst because of it. It didn't...and for that she was grateful.

She arrived at the training rooms and pushed her way inside waving to Arcee when she noticed the small purple femme. "Where's Ironhide?" She asked while she grabbed an FAL from the weapons wall after noticing that the black mech was not present to lay one out for her previously. Which was odd because he was always there when she came to practice her marksmanship.

Arcee made her way over to her and helped her load the magazine into the clip after seeing that she was still a little confused about how to put it in properly. There was a small smirk on the lieutenant's mouth plates directed at her. "Oh he's in a meeting with Optimus. Apparently there's some new arrivals outside of earth's atmosphere due to arrive sometime in the next few cycle...days." Arcee corrected.

She snorted and picked her gun up. "Arcee I know Cybertronian terms and language enough to understand almost anything you say. Don't feel like you're speaking to a normal human that doesn't understand slag okay? Say whatever you want, however you want around me. I don't mind."

She ignored the small purple femme's surprised look so that she could start lining up her targets for practice. The once frightening sound of gunfire now seemed to lull her into a state of ease, so different from before when the sound dragged up memories of her past when her home was destroyed.

"So I heard that the terror twins confessed something to you."

She paused in firing at her targets to eye the purple marksman warily. "Oh? Who told you that?" She went back to firing at the targets as she imagined the faces of all those that she despised most as she shot through them. Too bad it wasn't really them.

"Everybot on base knows about it. Skids and Mudflap were going around and telling everybot about it. Just so that you know all of us are rooting for you."

Her gun fell limp against her side when she turned to face Arcee's taller form. "Look Arcee I don't plan on letting anything happen between the three of us."

A flash of surprise passed through the femme's optics. "Why not? Do you not like them like that?" Arcee quickly schooled her features back into a serious yet interested look.

She shifted her feet uncomfortably and looked down at the floor. How do you tell a femme that you barely know that you were pushing the mechs that you had admitted to having feelings for away? All because of the fact that you were betrayed by a male in the past? And now you were afraid of letting yourself openly care for others in such a way again? Wasn't that the same as admitting that you were afraid? That you were weak?

"Arcee I...I haven't had very good experiences with mechs before." She scratched the back of her neck awkwardly as she looked at anything but the purple femme. "I was with a mech that I was sure that I would end up sparkbonding with...and he cheated on me with a femme that was like my own sister."

"I see."

She flinched at the serious tone that the marksman had used against her. "Yes. So I...and before that I didn't have good relations with them either. So I'm nervous and apprehensive about letting myself get involved with another mech again. I figured that I should just ignore it or something to protect myself but...now I'm not so sure."

How long could she deny her spark's need for contact between them? Would it eventually just extinguish itself if she continued to put herself through this? Hadn't she survived having Demetri betray her though? So why wouldn't she be able to fight this off and live through it?

"That's understandable Lilah."

Her head snapped up in surprise catching the sympathetic look that the purple femme was giving her. "You understand it and you're not like mad or anything?"

Arcee raised an optic ridge at her. "Why would I be?"

"Well...because I was mad at myself..." She placed her gun down on the table and bent over onto the flat surface using her hands as support. "I like them...but I don't like exposing myself to others. I feel weak and useless when I show others what I'm really feeling inside, like whoever sees it will use whatever weakness I show against me. So I just never let anybot get close to me because I've been betrayed before and I don't want to go through that again. And I'm scared." She swallowed audibly and squinted her eyes shut to prevent the emotions welling up inside of her from making her cry. "I'm scared that if I let them in and they betray me and it'll destroy what's left of me. And I don't know if I can survive a second betrayal if I...if I do admit openly that I...that I..." No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get the words to come out and that somehow relieved and angered her at the same time. "What if I destroy the person that I've become by accepting that? What if I'm changed so much that I don't even see myself anymore? What do I do then if they betray me and I become just like this again?"

"They won't."

"How can you even know that?" She snapped suddenly whirling on the femme and glaring at her. "Can you see the future? Do you see us always being completely happy and faithful to each other? Because I will tell you Arcee that I know about the twin's player status...and I do not intend to get played again." It would hurt her too fragging much too ever be put back together again she was sure of it.

Arcee laid a servo on her shoulder gently. "No I can't say that I can Lilah. But what I can say is that I have known the twins for a long time now, and I have never seen them act this way around a femme. Never have either of them even mentioned the word love in regards to anybot but each other, and especially not to a femme that they just wanted to interface with. That should tell you that they are serious about you."

Their gazes stayed locked with one another's while she contemplated those words. Demetri had not had the experience that the twins had had obviously, but did that mean that the two of them were more likely to really know what they wanted completely where Demetri did not. Or did it just mean that they really did want interface and were willing to...no. No she wouldn't even let herself think it. "So what do I do? How can I accept this...when earlier I was planning on ignoring it completely?"

Arcee offered her a reassuring smile. "Just try it. And believe me when I say that if the twins do anything to you the entire base will have their afts."

She snorted. "What the bots here like me that much that they would beat the twin's afts if they did something to me?" That sounded as farfetched as anything she'd ever heard.

"Yes I do mean that. All of the bots on base have become very attached to you despite your evasive tendencies." Arcee smirked at her startled exclamation of protest. "Yes your evasive tendencies. You do hide and avoid contact at all costs...or maybe it is more accurate to say that you did at first. It would also be accurate to say that you are still somewhat antisocial around others, but that is ok. Everybot has their comfort zones and yours is just smaller than most."

"Hey!" She protested at the blatant joke at her expense. But it was sort of funny and she found herself giggling a little bit despite herself. Arcee was a really interesting bot to be around...she might even try and get over her 'evasive tendencies' just to talk to her more. And not just her but the other bots as well. She just hoped that they could forgive her for trying to run away last night.

Speaking of... "Umm Arcee do you think that the bots will be mad that I tried to escape from the base last night?"

"Well I don't think they'd be mad per se..." Arcee muttered. "But they probably aren't pleased about it since the cons are after you. Some of them may threaten to glue you to something so that you can't do it again, but other than that they should act like it never happened for the most part. Well most of them anyways."

"Ok. So umm thanks for the uhh femme talk Arcee. We'll have to do it more often huh?"

Arcee smiled at her brightly. "Yes of course. Anytime. Now you should probably go and talk to the twins."

She deflated slightly because she was still embarrassed...and scared. But she would suck up her fear and at least try to get over her past because frankly she was tired of living in it. "Alright...wish me luck." She muttered as she turned and left the room.

"You don't need luck." Arcee laughed behind her.

What the slag was that supposed to mean? And what was she even going to say to the two mechs when she saw them anyways? Hey let's be bfs and gf with one another even if yesterday I tried to leave you two behind. Oh and by the way I'm completely terrified of even trying this but Arcee talked me into it anyways. Yeah that would go over real well.

She grumbled under her breath when she reached the main hangar. Bee and Mikaela were standing with Sam near Jazz... Maybe Mikaela would have an idea of what to...oh primus was she thinking of asking about dating advice in regards to two alien robots from a human femme? What was she even thinking?

Before she could turn and make a hasty escape Bee spotted her and trounced over to her chirping happily. Everybot else in the hangar turned to her as well and made their way over to her. "Helloooo...beautiful!" Bee played a talk show bit from his speakers.

"Hi Bee." Her cheeks heated up for some reason...probably because she was sure that he knew what had happened last night. Or maybe it was the smug smirk that Jazz was giving her over Bee's crouched form. Whatever it was she blushed and quickly took interest in her feet. "Umm...are you three visiting today?"

"Yeah we are." Sam answered her. "Mikaela and I are in college so opportunities to come and visit aren't very often. Thankfully my professors didn't give us too much homework this weekend since the year just started so Mikaela and I decided to come and hang out for the weekend."

Mikaela was nestled under Sam's arm against his side. She smiled at her when and waved. "Hey Lil. How have you been adjusting to living in a base housing giant alien robots?" She joked with a laugh.

"Not too bad."

"I woul' say no'." Jazz snickered at her.

"Shut up Jazz!" She admonished him sharply. Was he trying to embarrass her more than she already was? And couldn't he learn to keep his mouth shut or something?

The two humans looked completely clueless about what was going on, while Bee just chirped and started playing a song from his stereo. "_It's your birthday so I know you want to riiiide out! Even if we only go to my house! Sip more wheezy as we sit upon my couch! Feels good but I know you want to cry out!"_

Her jaw dropped completely, Jazz busted out laughing, and Mikaela and Sam just looked confused. "Bee! I thought you were on my side in this!" She yelled at him and buried her face into her hands groaning in defeat as she did so. Ohhh why must she be prone to drawing in such troublesome bots?

"Umm what's the whole undercurrent thing going on here?" Sam coughed awkwardly.

"Well the lil Lady here has somethin goin on wit da terror twins." Jazz answered before she could stop him.

Her head snapped up in shocked outrage. "JAZZ SHUT UP! THAT-THAT IS SO NOT TRUE! I MEAN...GAH SHUT UP JAZZ! PRIMUS YOU'RE SO EMBARRASSING!"

Mikaela and Sam were giving her wide, WIDE, eyed looks. And then Sam busted out laughing as well causing her and Mikaela to give him a wide eyed look. "Oh my god! Sunstreaker and Sideswipe? Those two are complete assholes! Well Sideswipe isn't so bad, but Sunstreaker's a royal dickhead just saying!"

"Sam!" Mikaela smacked him over the back of the head.

"Ow! It's true Mikaela! But hey if she wants em go ahead! I'm just saying that she's gonna have her hands full with those two and their pranks! Hell if they end up like...uhh bonded or whatever they're probably gonna spend every anniversary in their room, or a brig if they ever make one." Sam snorted.

Mikaela glared at her boyfriend and turned back to her with a smile. "Well, have you asked them to go out with you yet? What did they say?"

A small whine escaped her mouth at this point, part in embarrassment, part in...more embarrassment. What kind of human femme would even want to discuss dating alien robots? She was one thing because she was a hybrid...but Mikaela was something else entirely. "No...I haven't said anything. In fact I wasn't going to say anything at all-"

Mikaela gasped and suddenly grabbed her shoulders so that she could shake her. "You have to go and ask them even if you don't want to! Trust me! Look at it this way Lil, fifty years from now when you're old don't you wanna say that you had the balls to go on that date?"

"Hey you took what I said when you first met Bee and twisted it in a different meaning!" Sam exclaimed.

"Shut it Sam this is serious talk here!" Mikaela tossed a glare over her shoulder at her boyfriend. She turned back to her and huffed. "You are not going to run away from this! Now let's go and get this over with!"

With that Mikaela started attempting to drag her towards the living quarters...She panicked and started flailing, carefully so as not to hurt Mikaela, her arm around as she protested. "But-but I don't know what the slag to say?! Wait Mikaela let's just think this through for a second okay!?"

"Nope. We've thought it through enough!" Mikaela looked at her over her shoulder and smiled. "I have the perfect idea for your first date...the carnival is in town! You should take the twins and ride carnival rides and eat nasty carny food!"

She scrunched her nose at the nasty carny food bit. But then what Mikaela had said caught up to her and she planted her feet refusing to move as she gaped at the girl. "What? You want me to take the Terror Twins to a fragging carnival?! Can you even imagine all of the crap that will go down if I do that? Sides will probably dangle a hapless...no Sunny will dangle hapless humans over the side of the Ferris wheel or something!"

Mikaela laughed mirthfully. "Really? Is he that bad?"

"Are you even listening to me? And yes he is that bad!" She was NOT taking those two to a carnival! No she wasn't even going to move from this spot if she could help it!

"Bee please help our friend here regain her feet."

"Bee don't you-" She was scooped up in the yellow scout's servos and carried the rest of the way to the twin's quarters. There was a distinct sound of pedes stomping around inside of the room and she figured that Sunny was awake at least.

Mikaela pressed a button on the door to alert them that somebot was requesting entrance. The brunette smirked at her and waited with her hands behind her back while the pounding sound approached the door.

The door slid open an astrosecond later revealing a freshly polished Sunny who was scowling before the door even opened. When his optics landed on her the scowl fell for a split second but then he roughly put it back on as he reached out and plucked her from Bee's servo. "Why are you carrying her Bee?"

Mikaela tapped on Sunny's pede to get his attention.

Sunny scowled down at her and shifted his pede away from her so that she couldn't touch him again.

Mikaela ignored it and smiled at him. "Lilah wants to take you and-"

"NO I DON'T! SHUT UP MIKAELA!"

Sunny jumped at her outburst and turned to look at her. "Red? What the slag is going on?"

"Nothing! Nothing is going on! Mikaela and Bee are just meddling in stuff that isn't their business!" She glared at the two of them which probably didn't even look that frightening since she was blushing like a blueberry.

A loud bang rang out from behind them a klik before Sideswipe suddenly appeared beside Sunny looking like he had just come out of recharge. "What's the yelling about?" When his optics landed on her they brightened and the grogginess faded from them. "Morning sweetspark!" He grabbed her from Sunny and nuzzled her again making Mikaela aww, and Bee play another embarrassing clip of birthday sex by Jeremih from his speakers.

"Bee cut that out already you...you weirdo!" She stuttered out as she was being gently rubbed against the smooth warm metal of Sides face plates. They really were warm and nice to the touch...she sighed and leaned into it subconsciously. It really did feel good...

When she turned her head the other way a sharp squeal forced its way from her mouth when she noticed that Sunny was literally right in her face. "What the slag Sunny?!"

Sunny grunted either from irritation or just plain anger. "What is all this about?" He pointed down at Mikaela and Bee with a scowl pulling at his mouth plates.

Before she could say nothing Mikaela beat her to the punch.

"She wants to go out with you two!"

"N-no I don't! Mikaela shut up!"

"Look Lil you so want to go out with them! Look at you playing cuddle with Sideswipe up there!"

"I am not!"

"Yes you are! Now all you need to do is cuddle goldy boy there and you're set!"

"N-no! Sunny would stomp me before he let me cuddle him wouldn't you Sunny?!"

"No he wouldn't! If he didn't like you he wouldn't have gotten mad that Bee was holding you!"

"Yes he would! Sunny hates everybot so he just hates Bee by default!"

"But if he hates everyone then he wouldn't have cared that Bee was holding you because he would hate you too." Mikaela pointed out with a self-satisfied grin. "Soooo he liikkeeess you!" She sang out happily.

"No he doesn't."

"Actually he does." Sides interrupted both of them. When they both turned to him he was smirking at her like a Cheshire cat. "Remember our argument last night? Well that was just Sunny being difficult like he usually is. We share a spark so what is felt by one is felt by the other for the most part. So I can't really like you unless he does too."

"See I told you!"

"Shut up Mikaela!" She snapped at the annoying girl. But something about what Sides said was bothering her. "But Sunny hates a lot of people around here that you seem to like. If what you said was true how come that isn't how it works as well?"

"Does it seem like Sunny hates you?" Sides asked bluntly.

She eyed the golden mech from the corner of her eye. "Sometimes."

"He does that to me too." Sides shrugged. He smirked after a moment and leaned down into her face. "So what's this about you wanting to do out on a...humans call it a date right?"

"R-right. And it wasn't my idea! It was Bee and Jazz that put the idea in Mikaela's head!"

"No it wasn't! I can just see the affection and adoration in your eyes when you talk about-"

"SHUT UP MIKAELAAAAAAAA!" She screamed in mortification and ducked her head into the servo she was sitting on. Oh primus where was the hole that she needed so desperately to disappear into? What was wrong with this girl and trying to make her embarrass herself? Or more like why was she trying to embarrass her? "I never said any of that! She's making it up!"

Sides rumbled with laughter. "So if I asked you to go do something would you be okay with that instead?"

"Awww that's so cute! He's asking you out instead!" Mikaela gushed. Wasn't she supposed to be a hardaft or something?

She moaned pitifully and looked up at Sideswipe pleadingly. "Please make her go away before I shoot energy balls at her."

Sunny snorted and pulled Sides back into the room shutting the door in Mikaela and Bee's faces.

"Hey I wanna see-"

The door slamming shut cut off whatever Mikaela was going to say next to her relief. "Thank Clark from benchwarmers!"

Both mechs gave her a 'wtf' look. "You never did answer Sides' question." Sunny muttered quietly.

"What question?" She had been so busy arguing with Mikaela that she had been too distracted to really process anything that was said.

"About going out on a...date," Sunny said the word date like it was poison or something. "That's what organics call it right? And it's normal for courting couples to do isn't it?"

Her eyes widened both because he was asking her that, and also because he was blushing a light almost unnoticeable blue. What the slag was this world coming to lately? Somewhere up there Primus was laughing at her wasn't he? "Ummm I-I guess so. But we aren't courting or anything..." They weren't...right?

Sides shifted uncomfortably. "Well technically we are because we made our intent clear to you last night and...you didn't say no."

"I fragging fainted Sides! How can you say anything when you faint?!" She ducked her head down between her knees and groaned for the thousandth time in embarrassment.

A digit wormed it's way under her chin and forced her head up. Sunny was staring her down with an optic ridge raised. "Is that your way of saying that you are turning us down as potential mates?" There was a terseness in the way that he asked her that that set her on edge.

"Well no...I never said that. But I'm not really experienced with courting and stuff."

"Obviously or we wouldn't be having to have this conversation," Sunny muttered. "Answer Sides' earlier question. Do you want to go out with us? Know that if you accept this it means that we are officially courting you and it is a serious affair."

Sides rubbed her back gently. "Cool it Sunny. Lil knows how serious this is so give her a moment to think about it okay? There's no rush for her to accept it right now since we aren't going to recant it anytime soon."

Both of them were staring at her when she bowed her head to think, she didn't need to be staring at them to know that. She could feel their gazes penetrating the back of her head and it made her nervous. This was different than just saying hey let's go out on a simple date to spend time together, this was an if you go out with us now it's probably going to turn into sparkbonding at some point and there's no going back. And that made her nervous because the last time she had even thought about sparkbonding her intended had fragged her sister...

So she had to know before she took a plunge like this, that they would not hurt her like he had. "If...if I say yes will you promise me something?"

"What is it?" Sides coaxed her.

Her throat seemed to constrict on her making it hard to speak so the words came out strained and muddled. "Promise me that you...that you won't cheat on me. If you can promise me that...then I'll try to get over my issues to make it work. But if you can't promise me that, then I'll have to say no."

It got really quiet after that for a moment which scared her. Because when one had to think about something this hard it usually meant that there were doubts and insecurities...and that was not something that she was willing to have in this arrangement. Maybe it would be best if she just let it go...

"Cybertronian courtship doesn't work like that Red."

Her spark lurched. "What does that even mean?"

"It means that Cybertronians are never unfaithful to their intended. We don't sneak around behind our femme's backs and interface with other femmes. Courting is a very serious affair for our kind, one that we take to spark completely. Why do you think that Sunny and I never courted before?"

She looked up at Sides wide eyed.

"Because we were never serious about a femme before. And sure you're a little different than us on every level, but that doesn't mean that it can't work out right?" He nuzzled his cheek plates against her again purring low from his chassis. "So we would never ask you if we were even contemplating doing something like that. We care about you too much to do that...and we would be very hurt if you ever did something like that to us. So we would never put you through that kind of pain."

Another heated blush worked its way into her cheeks...she seemed to be doing that constantly today. He wasn't lying to her she could feel it...and while her head was trying to tell her that they could change their minds later, she roughly made herself stop before it could convince her to let this go. "Ummm so what do you two want to do then on this date or whatever?"

Sides grinned at her while Sunny just smirked. "Whatever you want to do babe."

Well that was really helpful... Looks like they were going to the carnival...

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

He wasn't sure about this carnival thing that Bee's human charge had talked his femme into taking them to. Or maybe he wasn't sure about the way said femme had dressed their femme up when they were going to be around other males.

Lilah was wearing a long sleeved low cut black shirt that showed off her very nice curves and figure, a small short jean skirt that rested halfway to her knees, and a pair of silver one inch heels. And Lilah did not look happy to be wearing any of it at all. She kept grumbling under her breath about how she was going to slaughter Mikaela later. He personally found it funny.

What he and Sides did not find funny were the stares human males were giving her astroseconds after entering the carnival. He scowled and put an arm around her shoulders like he often times saw human males do to their femmes in movies to ward other males away...

"Sunny?" she murmured.

He grunted to let her know that he had heard her while he lead her through the throng of people gathered around with Sides on her other side boxing her in. Too many squishies around to be comfortable for him with their smelly skin and oily servos...if one of them touched him or her he was going to...

**'Relax Sunny. This is supposed to for fun right? What's fun about being so paranoid? We'll just make sure that we don't leave her alone without one of us right? That way the males around here know that she's our's.'** Sides reassured him but he could tell that his twin was irritated as well.

He grunted again and let the small femme tucked under his arm lead them over to what he recalled was an amusement ride that humans devised. "Umm well I've never been to one of these things before so I'm as lost as you two must be...all I really know is the Ferris wheel."

She ducked her head and blushed again making Sides chuckle. "Well let's go on this Ferris wheel then."

Lilah's head popped up and she started sputtering protests against going on this 'Ferris wheel'. "No, no way! I'm not going on it! Let's just go on this instead!"

He shrugged when Sides raised a brow at her in confusion. Whatever this Ferris wheel was she obviously didn't like them so they would avoid it. "Whatever you say babe. Let's just try this thing out okay?"

"Okay." They led her onto the spinning imitation of an alien flying saucer where there were padded berth like things lying flat against the walls. Honestly he didn't know what they were and he didn't really care as he led her over to one and pushed her against it gently.

Other humans filed in and picked their own spots, males eyeing their femme as they walked passed. Both he and Sides growled at them and scooted a little bit closer to her to ward them off. No, going to a carnival was definitely not a good idea.

The door to the ride slid closed as the worker plopped down in the small station in the middle. Music started blaring from the speaker before the thing started spinning in a circle.

"And the bass keeps runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', And runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and..."

It started spinning faster and faster, humans were climbing up the berths and laying pressed flat against the walls in various positions since the inside of the ride possessed a stronger force of gravity than the outside world. It was like they were pinned to the wall.

"Hey I like this ride!"

When he turned and looked at his twin he was upside down on his stomach on the wall smirking at Lilah who was making her way up the wall to do the same thing. Only her skirt kept flipping up so she kept having to push it back down, eventually she managed to get up and flip over onto her stomach next to Sides. He raised an eyebrow at the two of them before he climbed up and laid flat against the wall with his arms propped behind his head.

"In this context, there's no disrespect, so, when I bust my rhyme, you break your necks. We got five minutes for us to disconnect, from all intellect collect the rhythm effect. So lose an inhibition, follow your intuition, free your inner soul and break away from tradition. Cause when we beat out, girl it's pulling without. You wouldn't believe how we wow shit out. Burn it till it's burned out. Turn it till it's turned out. Act up from north, west, east, south." The music kept blaring from the speaker. He snorted at the sheer stupidity of the song as he laid there waiting for the ride to be over.

Lilah turned to him and poked his side to get his attention...and in doing so he realized that her skirt had slipped up on her thighs again revealing her purple silk panties to anybot that wanted to look.

And looking they were...every set of male eyes were on her aft...Sides included but that was the only one that he didn't really care about. He reached out and yanked her skirt back down making a mental note to never let her wear it again in public, and growled at the males nearby for ogling her.

"The base keeps runnin runnin and runnin runnin!"

The ride started slowing down after another two kliks or so gradually so that the people riding could get down without falling on their afts. Lilah and Sides climbed down from the wall with identical grins on their faces. Those two really were much too alike for his sanity...

He casually stepped down once the ride stilled, grabbing her servo in his own so that he could lead her out from inside of this death trap.

"That was fun! We should go on it again!" She beamed at him.

"Maybe later." Not happening because her skirt would end up getting somebot killed if males kept looking up it. Or if she kept inadvertently flipping it up giving them a view.

She pouted at him.

"Let's go on that!" Sides pointed at a medieval ship looking thing that was swinging back and forth on an axis. His twin grabbed Lilah's other servo and started dragging them over to it.

"Sides that things going to make me purge all over the place!"

"Nonsense sweetspark! It'll be fun! Oh and purge on Sunny if you end up doing that so that I can get a picture for blackmail."

She laughed and shook her head at his twin as they stepped into the line for this...contraption. And once again males were staring at their femme, namely at her short skirt and tight shirt that exposed her large breasts. Next time Bee's charge wasn't going to dress her... "Get your op...eyes off of her you filthy fraggers!" He snarled at some of the young men near them.

Lilah turned to him and peered at what he was looking at. "Forget about them Sunny." She tried to soothe his growing aggravation. "Don't tell me you're going to let a couple squishies ruin our first date?"

He grunted in response since he had been contemplating hanging a few of them from that tall game that they had passed where people hit the button thingy with a hammer. But she didn't need to know that.

The line kept moving rather quickly and before he knew it they were next to get onto the death trap. Sides pushed them all to sit in the back so that they would be as high as possible when the ride reached its peak. Lilah did not look happy about that at all but she sat between them anyways and clutched at the bar that slid down over her lap in a death grip.

There was a shuddering scuffing sound as the thing started moving back and forth slowly at first...a belt underneath the contraption that pushed it to move both ways. He scooted closer to Lilah and grabbed her servo when he noticed her stiffen for some reason.

"Wooo hoooo!" Sides threw his arms up and stood up as much as he could in his seat when the ride started moving close to its highest peak.

"Idiot sit down!" Lilah admonished him in a weak yell.

"WOOO YEAH! HIGHER! FASTER! PIT YEAH! I LIKE THIS RIDE BETTER THAN THE LAST ONE!"

"She said sit down slagger!" He yanked his twin back into his seat not at all gently when Lilah gave him a stricken look. "Calm down babe it's almost over."

That made Sides look over at them, or more specifically at Lilah's green face. "Lil? What's the matter?"

She made a strangled sound and suddenly whipped around in her seat. "LET ME OFF THIS DEATH TRAP! I DON'T WANNA DIE!" She thrashed against the bar in her lap and she would have broken it if it hadn't been for him grabbing her and forcing her to be still. "WHY DID I GET ON THIS THING?! I HATE HIGH PLACES! I'M GONNA PUKE ALL OVER THE PLACE!" Her servos clutched at her mouth as she gagged.

Sides started rubbing her back as the ride started to slow down. "It's ok sweetspark it's just a ride. We're not going to die." He kept up rubbing her back until the thing finally stilled and the passengers started piling off. Lilah scrambled over him and off of the thing before he had even moved to get off. So apparently this thing was not her thing...

They lost sight of her for a moment in the throng of people flooding off of the platform and when they finally found her again she bent over purging her lunch all over the ground. "No more pirate ship!" she gasped out.

"No more pirate ship." he agreed as he grabbed her hair and held it back so that she didn't have to. Now if only her purge wasn't a bright electric blue color...he just hoped that it didn't draw attention from the humans because of the color.

Just in case he had Sides block the view of anybot passing by so that they wouldn't be able to see.

"No more pirate ship..." She repeated after she expelled the rest of what was in her stomach.

**'Did you hear that Sides? No more pirate ship.'**

**'Yeah yeah...I heard you. Is she going to be okay? Why did she get sick anyways?'**

**'Don't know. Must be something that organics do.'**

She finally stood back up and turned back to them. "I need something to drink to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth."

She led them from the small space and towards a vendor of some kind. She ordered some drink called a Dr. Pepper and an elephant ear...whatever that was. The vendor handed her a large cup and a flat paper sack and she went to pay him.

"Let me." He reached into his pants pocket and retrieved some earth credits to hand over to the man running the stand. When she gave him an odd look he just scowled. "A mech always pays babe that's the same way for us."

She shrugged and led them over to a bench to sit down so that she could eat her snack and drink whatever was in her cup.

Sides eyed her goodies, she eyed him for a moment before she tore a piece of her cake thing off and handed it to him. "Thanks sweets!" Sides stuffed the snack in his mouth and chewed it eyes going almost inhumanly bright at the taste. "Hey this is good slag!"

Lilah giggled at him and tore off another piece to hand to him.

He took it and popped it into his mouth sweetness exploding on his tongue from whatever was on it. It was pretty good for a human food item.

"So can we come back to this carnival thing again sometime?" Sides asked after taking a drink from Lilah's cup despite her protests that it was her's.

"Maybe..." Lilah muttered before she snatched her cup back. "Are you even supposed to drink stuff like this?"

Sides shrugged. "Who knows? But it was pretty good stuff...I wish the synthesized Energon that Ratchet makes tasted half as good." His twin grimaced.

"Yeah it tastes like slag...but we have to drink it so that we stay healthy."

She gave them a sympathetic look. "Ouch...well maybe he'll figure out a way to make better tasting Energon huh? And it can't be worse than the stuff that the cooks on base make..." She shuddered and took another pull from her straw.

"Oh it can... But the taste of nasty Energon can be discussed later babe. What I want to know is if you're having a good time."

She blushed and nodded once. "Yup! Besides the part where I threw up of course."

"Good. So what do you want to do next then? Is there another ride that you want to go on or something?" He had seen some game thing with guns and balls and stuff...maybe she would want to play one of those or something? Or maybe she wanted one of the toys that were hanging on display? "Do you want one of those toy...things at those booths?"

"Ummm I don't wanna waste my money playing them really since they rig them to make you lose." Lilah muttered thoughtfully to herself. Her eyes brightened several shades making them look more like a dark gold then her normal green. "We should go and ride the rainbow drop thingy!"

Sides grimaced at her. "Didn't you just throw up because you went on that other rocking thing?"

"Yeah but that was because it was back and forth."

He furrowed his brows and looked at Sides in confusion. "Ok so back and forth scares you but not side to side? How does that even work?"

She shrugged and stood up to dump her trash into a bin. "Dunno but I wanna try it anyways. If I throw up again I can just blame Sides for letting me go on the ride."

"HEY!"

He smirked at her before getting up and taking her servo in his own much larger one so that she could skip ahead towards this ride that she wanted to go on. While they walked he marvelled at how soft her skin was, and how surprisingly non oily it was, how warm and well it seemed to fit in his own. Like it was made to be there...he wondered if it would feel like this if he held her servo in his real one.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

They had gone on several more rides, the rainbow drop about seven or eight times because Lilah was completely engrossed with the ride. Sunny had to literally drag her away from it to get her to do something else while he laughed at the way she was pouting at his twin to take her back.

Sunny led them over to one of those games...he had the suspicion that his twin wanted to win something for their femme. So he waited with Lilah while Sunny paid the vendor and lifted the large hammer easily over his head and slammed it down on the button on the bottom.

The marker shot up all the way to the top and made the bell ring shrilly. In fact he was almost certain that his twin broke the fragging thing because the marker somehow got lodged in the top.

Sunny didn't seem to care because he just snatched one of the larger gold colored bears and handed it to her. While blushing...but he wouldn't tell him that because it would ruin his mechly pride. He received a harsh glare for his musing to which he just grinned cheekily back.

"I'll name it..." Lilah pursed her lips and stared her new toy down with all the concentration that Prowl used when formulating new battle strategies...which was just weird. "Gir," she finally said after a moment's contemplation.

Weird name...weird femme... But he loved her for it. He almost choked because he said love not like, but Sunny just raised a brow at him and shook his head. So he flipped him off over Lilah's head so that she didn't see it.

Sunny returned it and Lilah saw him so she turned and eyed him warily. "Sides what are you doing?"

"Nothing." He grinned at her before he grabbed her and dragged her over to another game so that he could win her something. "Pick something that you want so that I can win it for you."

She shrugged and placed a digit on her chin in contemplation. "Hmmm how about the red bear? That way I have one to match both of you?"

"Good idea...of course you'll love the red bear more cause it represents me right?" He dug into his pocket and retrieved some earth credits to hand over to the worker running the stand...who was leering at Lilah lustfully. "Hey buddy eyes off of my girl."

The worker glared at him when he moved to pick up a ball. "Fuck off man I can look if I want to."

"No you can't...and you wanna know why?" He reared his arm back and threw the ball like a bullet into the glass bottles stacked on top of one another causing them to shatter. When the worker eyed him fearfully he grinned darkly and pointed at the other balls that he had paid for. "Cause I still got these three balls and there's only two more targets...that means I have to find something else to throw the last one at, and you're the only thing around that I would even consider throwing it at."

His grin widened as he turned and grabbed the red bear for Lilah to hand it to her. The worker didn't even protest, nor did he look anywhere below her face for the first time since they had walked up to the booth.

Sunny smirked at him and pulled Lilah away from the booth and the trembling man.

"Oh yeah I know I'm good."

They wandered around for a little bit longer before his optics landed on a big circle looking thing. He immediately grabbed Lilah and dragged her towards it and Sunny as well because he was holding onto her other servo.

Lilah tugged him to a stop however when she saw what he was leading her to. "No Sides I am not getting on the Ferris wheel."

"Aww come on sweets! It isn't even moving fast!" He pouted at her.

"It's really high up!"

"So is my shoulder in bipedal mode!" He pointed out. "And you're not afraid to sit there!"

"Because you won't drop me! That thing might break and it's a lot higher up!"

His lips drooped into a frown as he pouted. An idea flooded his processor suddenly, a skit from a movie that he had seen with Bee and his charge when they were hanging out in the rec room while Sunny was on patrol all day. He grinned internally and dropped to his knees at her feet wrapping his arms around her midsection and peering up at her pleadingly. "Please sweets! Please go on the Ferris wheel with me!"

"Sides..." She glared at him half-heartedly.

"Don't make me start kissing your shoes sweetspark..."

She huffed and smacked his head. "Fine but if I throw up I'm aiming at you."

"Deal!" Before she even registered anything he was dragging her over and into one of the cart things that were letting passengers on and off. He settled on one side of her on the bench and Sunny took her other side, both of them wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders when the ride started to move.

She dug her face into his shoulder refusing to look anywhere but at him. Her fingers fisted his red short-sleeve t-shirt tightly and she whimpered.

"Sides you shouldn't have made her come on this thing." Sunny sighed as he scooted closer to her and boxed her in by pressing himself against her back.

"High...so high...hate high places..." she whimpered.

He racked his helm for something to do to make her feel better when he remembered that he was in fact in holoform right now...that meant that he was on size level that matched her own. Therefore he could do things with her like this that he couldn't do with his bipedal form.

His servo trailed down one side of her face gently hooking on her chin and making her look up at him. He tilted her head to the side and leaned down slow enough for her to pull away if she wanted to. She looked at him with wide optics, but she didn't pull away from him so he pressed his lips against her's.

It was soft and not at all rushed or firm. He wanted her to feel like she had control over what was happening so that he didn't scare her. So he moved his lips against her soft warm ones slowly and gently never taking it too fast before she had a chance to respond. And it felt so much better than any kiss he had ever felt before...even the heated ones that he had been locked in during interface.

Sunny shifted and tugged at her gently.

So he released her with one soft pass of his glossa over her slightly parted lips.

Sunny turned her towards him and dipped his own helm slowly, much more hesitantly than he had, and pressed his holoform's lips against her's the same as he had. He also kept it slow and gentle for her but he could feel the sheer pleasure that such a small contact between them had caused in his twin. It seemed like he was not the only one that was in awe of what kissing her felt like.

Sunny pulled back and leaned his forehel-head on her's. A soft smile tugging at his lips as he gazed down at the blushing femme. "You taste good babe."

Lilah blushed harder and squeaked out something that sounded like 'pervert'.

They both laughed and caged her in in the cart as the ride came to its end. And she hadn't even been aware that they had been moving the whole time...looks like his idea had been a success.

Not only that...but it gave him a perfect feel for how good kissing as a more organic being could be. He would be sure to steal many more from her in their time together... Because he was slowly becoming addicted to her...or maybe it wasn't slow at all.

What he did know was that what they had would never end on his and Sunny's parts. The bond that they had established with her was irreversible. It could not be changed or severed. He was more sure of it then he was of anything else.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	13. Chapter 13

No author's note today! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>"Umm Sides? Don't you think you're taking this ummm dating thing a little too far?" Lilah muttered as she met up with Sides in the main lobby of her work place. The other employees were all staring at her, and at him with obvious interest and it was making her anxious to get him the slag out of there.<p>

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Sunny hadn't walked her into work that morning. It was like they didn't think that she could safely walk the fifty feet from their alt modes to her work! What the pit was even up with that anyways?! And now rumors were circulating around work that she was fragging rich guys for money!

Sides grinned at her and pulled her into an embrace once she was close enough to him. "Nope sweetspark! You can never take courtship too seriously! And it's good manners for me to come in here and walk you out to my alt personally."

She blushed both at what he said and because he chose that moment to press a soft kiss to her forehead. There was absolutely no shortage of affection from these two now that they were officially together. Even Sunny, though not as often as Sides, had taken to nuzzling and even cuddling her. The first time it had happened after their date it had nearly given her a sparkattack.

"So I can't walk into work by myself? And I can't walk out of work by myself? That's what you're saying right?" She asked dryly. Not even giving him a time to answer her she turned and started leading him towards the door of her work. She was eager to get out before the rumor pool started going haywire again.

"Yo Lils!" A familiar voice called out.

She gritted her teeth and turned slowly towards the newcomer. "What Skylar?!"

Skylar stopped in front of her and Sideswipe eyeing the now scowling male openly as Sides wrapped an arm around her possessively. "Is it true?" He suddenly asked with a smug smirk on his face.

"Is what true?" She asked warily. As a reflex she shifted further into Sides's hold since it brought her comfort. She really didn't want to know what rumors Skylar had been spreading. Nor did she really want Sides to have to hear it either. But he wasn't going to leave her inside the shop and she knew that asking him would be fruitless so she sincerely hoped that he didn't take things to spark.

"That you're fucking these two rich guys for money? I mean babe you're hot enough to be a high class hooker so I was just wondering if you wised up and got a profession that was more up your alley."

She gasped, actually gasped in open shock, anger, and even some hurt. So this was what her co workers discussed about her when she wasn't around?! And then her anger started to overcome anything else because this was probably all Skylar's fault in the first place! Fragger was too sore that she had shown no fragging interest in him at all!

She stepped away from Sideswipe even when he reached for her to pull her back. "Just because I'm not interested in your little dick!" She snapped stressing the word little greatly. "Doesn't mean that I'm only disinterested because I'm fucking something better. And let's face it Skylar everyone has a bigger dick and balls then you!"

Skylar's face morphed into an icy glare. He growled at her and leaned down into her face. "Now listen here bitch! Your little boy toys will get rid of you soon enough and then you won't have anyone to watch your back! I always get what I want and I want you on my dick. And I'm gonna get it too just you wait you stu-"

**_BAM!_ **Skylar suddenly went flying from a swift forceful punch to the face from Sideswipe. Whom looked absolutely furious.

She just blinked at the spot where Skylar had hit the floor unconscious then turned to Sides who was growling and sneering angrily at the human male. She placed a gentle hand on his upper arm and tugged him towards the door. "Calm down Sides... Skylar's just a spoiled afthole." What more could she say to calm him after the bastard had said things like that to her? Sides and Sunny were her boyfriends, giant alien robot boyfriends but boyfriends all the same. Even if it was still weird to think of all of them like that.

"Calm down?! Calm down when he was talking to you like that?!" Sides turned to her angrily a very rarely seen side of him. "Look I may be a pretty laid back mech but nobot talks to my girl like that. If he ever gives you slag like that again you tell me or Sunny and we'll knock the frag out of him." He helped her into his alt mode and moved his holoform around to the other side to keep up appearances even though he disabled it once he was inside.

She giggled quietly at how protective he was being and how sweet she found it. Sometimes these two seemed to forget that she was much much stronger than a human, and short of being shot there was little that they could do to hurt her. Of course she acted weak and average to keep up appearances so that others didn't realize she was weird but if it came down to a confrontation she would somehow manage to win. "You and Sunny are really too overprotective you know? I do appreciate it but now you won't be able to come in the building again."

Sides shifted around her grunting. "Why not?"

"Because you assaulted an employee that worked there. Now the boss isn't going to allow you on the premises most likely which means that Sunny will probably have to come and pick me up, and take me to work from now on." His groan shook the entire alt mode making her have to stifle a laugh to keep from upsetting him more.

"Why don't you just work at NEST? Do you know how to do anything besides painting cars? Any mechanic work or anything?"

"Hey the way you asked me if I knew how to do anything besides painting cars was very offensive babe." She blushed and stammered after realizing that she had called him babe. "I mean yeah...I've worked as a mechanic before among other things."

"Among other things?" He chuckled through his speakers. "And what would those other things be?"

"Nursing mostly. Sucks having to make up some excuse to move after a decade or so when you show no obvious signs of aging you know? But yeah I had a couple of degrees in nursing and stuff. But I like fighting and getting my hands dirty so I chose to go with mechanic work this time. No shortage of fights to get into with co workers in places like that." The seat she was sitting on suddenly tilted back making her squeal in shock.

"Sorry sweetspark. I just wanted to make sure that you were comfortable." There was a teasing edge to his voice.

"Right...I definitely believe that Sides." She sighed and leaned back into the heated seat comfortably. Who would have guessed that giant alien robot boyfriends could be so caring and thoughtful. Now all she was waiting to see was if Sunny was the same way.

"Let's talk to Ratchet tomorrow about training you as an apprentice."

She shot up out of her seat. "What?! Sides I've already been put down as a marksman! I can't just suddenly change my profession like that! What if Galloway does a 'I'm sure that my super intelligent mind spies some sort of irregularity here that could be a huge threat to national security' thing?"

Sides laughed through his speakers. "Yeah he is like that isn't he? But you aren't actually going to be a NEST soldier sweets. Sunny and I don't want you fighting on the front line where it's so dangerous."

"Sides...you know I have fought cons on my own with no backup whatsoever for a couple centuries right?" She asked quietly.

"Yes but Sunny and I are courting you sweets. That means that we have a certain amount of say in what you do, and we don't want you to fight on the front lines. We want you to always be safe and unharmed. Please don't fight us on this."

Don't fight them on this? They were trying to control her fragging life when they had only been dating for a few days! Just because she had admitted to herself that she loved the idiots didn't mean that she was going to be some submissive little femme that listened like a good little girl. Why could they not understand that? "Sides I'm going to do what my spark tells me to do even if you two don't like it."

"No you won't." A new voice suddenly came through the speakers in a private comm link. Sunny. "Our intended is not going to be in such a compromising situation babe. We want you to do something that's safe where you won't get hurt constantly."

"Sunny I know how to fight!" She snapped getting angry. "I've been doing it on my own for a pretty good chunk of time and I'm still here to show for it! And my skills are more useful for a battlefield then they are in a med bay! So don't sit there and say, you're gonna do what I want you to do because I'm the mech and you're the femme! Because I don't let anybot boss me around when I want to do something!" Part of her realized that losing her temper here was a bad idea, and that Sunny would not react well at all to her arguing with him about this. But she just didn't care about that at all! They could fight it out when she got back she didn't care! Their first fight as an item was a stepping stone anyways!

Sunny didn't answer her so she figured that he was either too mad to speak, or he had cut the link because he was too mad to speak. So Sides groaned as he pulled up to the NEST base. "Sweets Sunny gonna be in a raging fit when we get in there."

"No he's going to come out here and have a fit." She pointed out when her senses told her that the golden mech was rushing in their direction and that he was angry.

Sides shifted into his bi pedal mode, metal shifting around her until she was somehow sitting safely on his servo. "He's not happy sweetspark. Why don't we all just talk about this calmly okay?" He pleaded with her.

She huffed. "If he talks calmly I will." Her eyes were locked on the hangar doorway anticipating a rush of gold any moment now. And he did not disappoint her either.

One moment there was nothing there, and the next a flash of gold was barreling out of the hangar on a war path straight in their direction. He was scowling at her and puffing his chassis and armor up to make himself look bigger. And he was growling at her angrily. "You are not going to be a soldier!" He suddenly yelled. Loud!

She jumped up in Sides's servo and pointed a finger at him angrily. "You aren't the boss of me Sunny! We're dating not married and even if we were I wouldn't be some stupid little femme that couldn't make her own decisions! You're acting like fighting is something that I've never done before!"

"I never said that! Any of it! I just said that I want you to be safe! How can we call ourselves sparkmates if we let our femme walk straight into danger?!"

"We aren't sparkbonded yet!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. By this point half of the base was standing in the doorway of the hangar watching her and Sunny have it out. "Look Sunny I don't know the first thing about repairing one of you! That's just fucking fact! Recognizing an injury doesn't necessarily amount to knowing how to treat it! Fighting is a different story! I fight well because I have to! And nobot is going to tell me that I have to do something that I don't want to because they don't want me fighting!"

Sunny opened his mouth to yell at her again but she cut him off.

"I'll go find somebot to fight right now just to piss you off! Ho-" She suddenly squealed when she was yanked out of Sides's servo and placed in Sunny's so that she was pinned between his palms. "Sunny you fragging afthole let me up right now!?"

"No I don't think so! I think you need to be straightened out." Sunny growled down at her from so close that the warm air from his vents hit her face.

"Straightened out?! Who the pit do you think you are?! You better put me down before I zap your interface panel so that your rod doesn't work anymore!" She threatened even going so far as to flash her optics a bright stormy blue with electrical energy.

Before things could progress that far Optimus stepped forward servos held up to difuse the situation. "Please calm down both of you. Let us speak civilly on this matter."

Sunny calmly as calmly as he could released her from where he had pinned her, but he didn't let her out of his servo.

She lifted her chin in defiance right back.

"So what is the problem here? Please explain in a calm tone so that I can clearly understand both of you."

"Him and Sides are trying to make me become a medic." She gritted out in a calm...deadly tone. Her eyes were still glaring daggers at Sunny even if she knew that she would never actually hurt him. It would hurt her too much to hurt him but she wouldn't tell him that.

"And that is an issue because?" Optimus pressed in a patient tone.

"Because I'm not a fragging medic!" She jumped up to her feet and pointed at Sunny again. "Just because he says that I have to be one, doesn't mean that I'm going to listen! This is my fragging life to use as I see fit! If I want to fight again I'll fragging fight again! He's not going to tell me that I can't just because we're...courting!"

Optimus looked between her and Sunny and even at Sides before sighing and shaking his helm. "So you wish to fight and your intended mates do not wish you to? Does that properly summarize everything?"

"Yes." She gritted out.

"Why do you want to fight?" Optimus suddenly asked her. "Is there a reason that you desire to fight so ardently? It is like you crave it from what I can discern. Is there a reason for that?"

That question made her freeze for a moment because she had answers that she thought were obvious. She was angry, violent because she had grown up in violence, vengeful towards the ones that had hurt her... Those were all reasons that she fought like she did. With no remorse and no pity, fierce and unrelenting. But was there another reason for her need for battle?

She remembered the first time that she had actually fought a mech... It had been when she and the others had been escaping from the research lab in some deep uninhabited part of Europe. She had no choice at the time but to attack him when he had Miata pinned under his pede...she had to kill him. And at first she had felt such guilt even if he had been an evil con, because life was sacred and should not be taken for granted. But hadn't they done that to her? To her friends? They had forced them to be experiments for their entire lives up to that point.

And in that moment the answer really came to her. She fought because it made her feel free, it symbolized the freedom that she had taken for herself. That was why she loved fighting. Everything else factored in, but nothing quite matched up to that truth. Fighting was freedom.

"I...it makes me feel free when I fight." She finally answered after being silent for several moments. And like she knew it would her answer made them all look at her in surprise. "When...when we escaped from the research lab I...I killed bots. At first I felt bad about it for taking life. But then I had to ask myself, how many people did they kill just to make you? You who they would lock away in this place until you just wasted away into nothing. How much did you suffer at their hands? And how much more would you have if you hadn't killed them? And not just me but the others as well. So I couldn't keep feeling guilt about it because it would've destroyed me on the inside and all that death would've been for nothing."

"So I fight because it symbolizes the freedom that I have earned for myself. I do it because I can and because I enjoy it. Whether others can understand it or not makes no difference. It won't change me and the way I view or think of things. The fact is that if I hadn't fought I would still be there chained to a wall or something. A hapless fucking victim."

It felt so fragging good just to get that off of her chest! So much relief almost made her feel high. She couldn't help it, she fucking grinned like a maniac! Because she finally really understood herself and that part of her that so craved fighting when she was always trying to beat it back down. But now she didn't have to because she really understood it. And that was a victory in itself since she had been struggling with it for so long.

Silence greeted her. She didn't even care that none of them were speaking, or that they were probably looking at her like she was nuts. She wasn't nuts! She just liked fighting and inflicting pain on those that deserved it. It was different.

A digit gently caressed her back. "Babe...look at me please?"

She turned to Sunny with the same wide grin on her face. "Yeah?"

One of his digits wiped her cheek gently coming up stained blue for some reason. "You're leaking." He murmured quietly. So quietly that it was barely even distinguishable to her.

"What? No I'm not! I feel great!" She giggled, actually giggled when she was sure she looked like a demented serial killer. But she used her sleeves to wipe her cheeks anyways and she was surprised when the bright purple shirt came up stained dark blue. She furrowed her brows and stared at her soaked sleeves in confusion. But...she wasn't sad or upset! Was she?

She just felt numb after the initial rush that she had felt at understanding herself. And she still felt numb now...so why was she crying? It just didn't make sense to her at all. "Maybe I'm getting sick or something...cause I don't feel like I should be leaking."

Sunny raised an optic ridge at her. "Babe you probably don't get sick you're half Cybertronian and we don't really get sick either."

"But I..."

"Why don't you think this decision over more before coming to me about it Lilah? If you should choose to become a soldier NEST could certainly use you so long as you do not use your extra abilities around the other soldiers. But I believe that Ratchet could also use an apprentice medic to help lighten his workload. Whatever decision that you come to I will accept and honor. Take as much time as you need." Optimus reassured her before he turned and walked back into the hangar leaving her with Sides and Sunny who were watching her with obvious worry.

"I need a shower." She murmured numbly. There was a lot on her mind...but she still felt strangely numb. Maybe the hot water would help her feel again.

"Sure babe." Sunny replied as he turned and carried her back into the base.

* * *

><p>Chains rattled. The only sound she could hear in her small dark cell. Sometimes she would rattle them on purpose to anger the guards despite the punishments she would receive in response. She still had the festering burns on her back to show for her latest efforts.<p>

Her small hands clutched at the dirty grimy chains shaking them together creating a sharp rapping rattling sound. She didn't care that she was getting dirty by shaking the filth onto herself, all she cared about was the stomping pedes stomping towards her. If they could inflict pain and fear on her the least she could do was make them feel irritation in return.

That was why she kept shaking her chains even though it hurt her festering wounds both on her back, and the wounds that were cauterised shut. She would never be pretty but that was okay because they were ugly too.

The pedes stopped right outside her door and yanked the reinforced steel open. Dark red optics peered at her a sneer pulling up and revealing sharp denta. Burstimpact stalked into the room like an angry animal that was defending it's territory.

She smiled at him underneath all the dirt and grime staining her face. She hated him to the very bottom of her spark...she wanted to inflict all the pain onto him that he did onto her. No words were exchanged between them as he placed a small suppressor collar on her neck to prevent her from being able to move or build energy.

The metal sliding against her throat didn't scare her anymore, nor did the sharp pain that came when the spikes shot themselves into her neck to ensure that she would not be able to pry it off without killing herself. The servos of this monster picked her up taking her away from her cell and that managed to scare her a little bit. Because nothing good ever happened when you were taken from your cell.

"Not so smug now little one are you?" Her tormentor muttered darkly. "I think that it's time for your first introduction into the real purpose that we created your kind to suit."

She was carried into a medical room with a small berth that was the size that meant that it was used for her kind. There were strong reinforced restraints on it to hold them in place. He laid her down on it and activated them so that her arms and legs were pinned to the berth. But she didn't panic yet because she had been here before.

"Things can get worse little one never forget that." Came the eery warning before the sound of shifting metal made it's way to her ears. Her tormentor shifted to alt mode and activated his holoform.

This was new and her eyes widened in surprise and even some fear. The tall male holoform with long murky brown hair and bright red eyes stalked towards her completely naked.

Her small body started quivering despite her best efforts to keep herself from looking scared in front of him. But she couldn't help it because she had heard from Miata what interfacing was...and she didn't want to interface.

She thrashed against her restraints as he drew closer uncaring that her movements were making the spikes tear into her neck, or that the restraints were shocking her body. All she could see right now, all she could care about right now was the male kneeling over her small body pressing against the still painful wounds on her chest.

And so she screamed as loud as she could as the pain tore her insides apart...even though she knew that nobot would come.

* * *

><p>Sides came shooting out of recharge when he heard his femme screaming at the top of her lungs from her quarters. He shot off of the berth and rushed across the room so fast that his wheels screeched when he slid to a stop to open her door.<p>

As soon as it was open he rushed into her room and over to her bed where she was still screaming and thrashing violently. He didn't know how to handle this so he did what came naturally to him and picked her up so that he could cradle her in his servos.

There was a sharp thud behind him as Lil's screams finally woke his twin from recharge. Sunny came rushing into the room with his swords already drawn and looking for any threat to their femme.

"Sweetspark please wake up!" He shook her as gently as he could considering he was panicking. But the screams were fragging awful! It sounded like she was being murdered or something!

Sunny suddenly knelt down next to him and gently caressed her cheek with one of his digits. "Babe wake up. Sides and I are right here."

The screams suddenly cut off with a gasp when her optics finally shot open and she came shooting up from his servo. She looked around her room wildly for something that wasn't there before her optics finally landed on them and widened. She squinted almost as if making sure that they were there before asking in a hesitant tone. "Sides? Sunny?"

He vented heavily in relief and cuddled her against his chassis. "Yeah sweetspark it's just us. You scared the slag out of us you know?" He leaned down and pressed his mouth plates against her head shuddering as his smell receptors took in her clean sweet floral scent.

"Sorry Sides...I had a nightmare."

"I know." With a sigh he relinquished her to Sunny so that his twin could reassure himself that she was alright as well. He watched them as Sunny nuzzled her against his cheek plates finding it hard to believe that t his was in fact his crazy sociopathic twin loving on a small half organic. The Sunny that he had known would never have even allowed her to touch him...

"Are you okay babe? What the slag were you dreaming about that made you scream like that?"

Lilah seemed to freeze at the question for some reason and avert her gaze towards the floor. "I-I don't want to talk about it right now. If-if that's o-ok."

Sunny made to demand her to speak of it and he smacked his twin upside the helm before he could start. "Leave her Sunny. If she doesn't want to talk about it she doesn't have to right now. Let her come to us and talk about it when she's ready okay?"

Sunny grunted and cradled her form against his chassis while scowling at him. "Fine."

"You're welcome Lil." He smiled as much as he could when she gave him a grateful look. Inside he was torn because he really wanted, no needed to know what the pit could happen to make a femme scream like that. Sure he had seen and heard a lot of pain in his time from mechs and femmes, but never had he seen something like that. And he never wanted to see it again if he was being honest. He always did have a weakness for femmes in pain.

"You wanna sleep in our berth with us babe? We can shrink down to holoform if you want."

"No that's ok. I probably won't go back to sleep tonight." She sighed against Sunny's chassis.

He checked his chronometer and saw that it was only a little after two in the morning. Much too early for her to be up for the day. "Sweets you need your recharge. Would it make you feel better if we recharged in real form with you?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know. Why does it matter if I get up this early anyways? When I have nightmares I can never go back to sleep so I'm used to getting no sleep."

"Well it's our job to make sure that you do get your recharge." Sunny pointed out joints hissing as he got back onto his pedes and walked back into their room with her still cradled against his chassis. His digits were caressing the bare skin of her upper arms where several nasty looking scars resided while he walked.

He just followed behind slowly still troubled by the recent events. What had made her scream like that...again? Had she screamed like this in her dreams and he and Sunny hadn't even woken up from recharge? How could they call themselves her soon-to-be mates if they recharged through things like that when she needed them?

Sunny laid down on their berth with Lil sprawled out across his chassis. "Recharge babe. Sides and I will be here when you wake up again."

"Yeah we will be. So recharge well sweetspark. We'll be here to protect you."

She turned to look at him tiredly before nodding and drifting quickly back into recharge. He climbed up onto the berth and laid a servo over her back to make sure that she was warm. His optics stayed locked on her recharging face so peaceful and misleading when he knew that there was a storm raging inside of her subconscious right now. The question that he wanted to ask was what was haunting her dreams?

* * *

><p>He jolted up out of deep recharge for the second time that morning to the sound of soft cries coming from his chassis. Shrugging Sides servo off of her he pulled her up so that she was cradled at face level.<p>

The movement startled his twin out of recharge. "Sunny what? What's up?"

The small femme in his servos whimpered again, louder this time. The sound had his twin shooting up from the berth so that he was leaned over her on his servo. "What? Not this again?"

"Obviously or else we wouldn't be awake." He commented dryly whilst he poked her gently with a digit to try and rouse her from another nightmare. "Red wake up."

She came awake with a small gasp. Much easier then last time when she had been screaming their receptors off. She blinked at him then at Sides before frowning. "Another one?"

"Why don't you tell us?" Sides murmured quietly.

She gave them both guilty looks. "Sorry...it's a nightly thing." With Sides's help she sat up and scratched at the back of her head nervously. "What time is it?"

"Six in the morning." He answered after checking his chronometer. Good thing that he and Sides had the cycle off from patrol or else he would be a ball of anger and irritation more so then normal all cycle long.

"Oh. Well I guess it's time to get up then." She yawned and stretched before moving to hop off of his servo.

His digits wrapped around her to prevent her from escaping. "Babe you can't be getting adequate recharge like this." And she had pretty much implied that she rarely got enough recharge because of her nightmares. So they had to figure out some way to help her because lack of recharge was not good for a bot's health.

Now normally he didn't care about anybot but his twin, but the little femme in his servos had wormed her way into his spark. That meant that he...well he felt something strong for her which meant that she was his. That also meant that he was responsible for ensuring that she got her proper recharge. "Let's go and see Ratchet maybe he has something that can help you recharge at night."

He got off of the berth and moved towards the door to their room.

"NO!"

Both him and Sides froze before looking down at their femme. "No? Why the pit not? You need more recharge and you obviously aren't going to get it without some help."

Red looked at him the entire look of her body and expression just screaming nervousness. "I don't want medication!"

"Why not? From what I can tell organics like taking unnecessary medicine." Sides pointed out quietly. "And if it helps you recharge sweetspark then it can only be a good thing."

"And after we talk to Ratchet we can talk about you wanting to be a solider." He pointed out after walking out the door to their quarters with her protesting form settled safely in his servo.

"But Sunny I don't want anything to help me sleep!"

"Too bad babe. I can't recharge if you can't recharge and I need my beauty recharge."

"You're so vain!"

Side snickered and patted her head affectionately. "He's my twin sweets! Of course he's vain! He wouldn't be Sunstreaker if he wasn't."

Sides dodged his fist when he swung it at him. "Idiot! Stop talking slag to our femme like that! You're the idiot that has a knack for getting our afts brig time! Thank primus that Prowl isn't here or else we'd be spending more time with him then Red!"

Sides grimaced. "Hope he's not one of the new arrivals that's supposed to be coming either today or tomorrow."

"Who's Prowl?" Lilah asked when they stopped outside of the med bay.

"He's an afthole." Sides muttered darkly.

Lilah smirked and laughed lightly. "Oh I figured that out Sides but that still doesn't tell me who that is."

He sighed and walked into the med bay where he could see Ratchet bent over his desk working on datapads. "Prowl is Optimus's second in command and his top strategist. He's a major afthole for the rules and he makes sure that anybot that violates them does brig time."

"Ouch. Hope he doesn't come or else I'll probably end up down there too at some point."

"No you won't because I'll offline him if he tries to stick you in a cell. But rest easy cause there isn't even a brig here yet..." Yet being the key word. If Prowl did land with the new arrivals the first thing that he would do would be to build a brig especially once he realized they were there. "Hey Hatchet!"

Ratchet growled and turned around wrench raised to belt him in the helm with it only to freeze when his optics landed on Lilah. He stood from his stool and briskly made his way across the med bay to where they were standing snatching her from his servo and looking her over for injuries. "Are you alright? These two didn't damage you in some way did they?"

"Umm no nothing like that."

Sides looked at him, pointed at Ratchet who was fussing over their femme like a sparkling, then shrugged as if to say 'wtf?'

He just shrugged back before stepping marginally closer to Ratchet. "She's having difficulty recharging at night. So we brought here here so that maybe you could prescribe her something to help her recharge peacefully."

Lilah whipped her head around and growled, actually growled at him. "SUNNY SHUT UP!"

Ratchet raised an optic ridge and scowled at her. "Why do you not want your recharging troubles to be known? It is not like it is something as embarrassing as interfacing difficulties which I could see a bot being embarrassed over."

Lilah squeaked and turned away from him. "OH MY FRAGGING PRIMUS YOU DID NOT JUST MENTION ROBOT FRAGGING DIFFICULTIES TO ME?! WHAT POINT OR CONNECTION ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO MAKE HERE?"

Side coughed awkwardly. "Umm Ratchet she isn't embarrassed about not being able to recharge. She just doesn't want to have to take medication to help her recharge."

"Yup. So you just mortified her for no fragging reason by mentioning your obvious interfacing prob- OW!" He roared when a wrench slammed into his helm mid sentence. "THE FRAG WAS THAT FOR HATCHET!?"

Ratchet scowled at him. "For being an idiot and mentioning problems that do not exist." He turned back to Lilah and sat her down on a berth to examine her with his scanners. "Why do you not want a sleeping aid as humans call them?"

She squirmed under the scan. "Umm because I don't like any form of medication being put into my body...besides booze."

Ratchet made a face at her. "Alcohol is not made for medicinal purposes youngling."

"Oh ho but it is! You see booze makes you feel numb and high as a fragging kite! I'd rather break it out then the Tylenol or Advil or whatever slag people take on a daily basis. And you can play drinking games and stuff too! But normal human alcohol doesn't really do much for me so I mix high grade into it and that gets me fragged up!"

Sides snickered at her. **'We are so getting her some high grade soon. I bet she's really fragging awesome when she's over charged.'**

He snorted both at his twin for being a fragging idiot, and at Ratchet who was now openly scowling at the femme. Sometimes it really freaked him out how much of a perfect meld of the two of their personalities she actually was, yet she still maintained a certain air that was distinctly feminine and soft about her. That was so incredibly hot to him...

**'Easy bro! My interface paneling is starting to get too tight!'**

**'Then go jerk it off!'**

Ratchet moved over to a cabinet containing all of his medication, human and bot. "I need to make a sleep aid for her that will be strong enough to affect her because she is stronger then humans. Her spark will burn off normal human medications so...I will see about strengthening it with Cybertronian recharge inducers."

"Ok. Will it be safe for her though?"

"Who is the CMO Sunstreaker?" Ratchet muttered darkly from the cabinet.

"You are. Can we go now?"

"Get out of my med bay!"

He grabbed Lilah up from the table and carried her out the door. "So where do you want to go to talk about your...profession? I'll assume that you're hungry but you probably don't want to eat the cafeteria food. So where do you want us to take you?"

"IHOP!"

Both he and Sides shared a look. What the frag was an IHOP?!

* * *

><p>"If my metabolism was like a human's this would all be going straight to my aft." She moaned in delight as she chewed a piece of cinnamon french toast stuffed with cream cheese and topped with whipped cream. She was a real whore for french toast and IHOP had the best french toast ever. The only thing that could make this better would be if Sides and Sunny would stop watching her eat so closely.<p>

"Umm is watching me stuff my face that interesting?" She mumbled between bites. Maybe they wanted to try it? She scowled down at her plate...she never shared her french toast!

"Ummm no comment." Sides smirked at her while he swept some of his black bangs from his optics. "We were just wondering if we could at least discuss what you and Sunny were fighting about yesterday?"

She scowled again this time at Sides and Sunny. "What about it? It's my choice to make not yours." Her french toast jerked when she started stabbing it violently with her fork. Yeah take out your anger on inanimate objects!

"Shouldn't you at least listen to our opinions on the matter? We're going to be sparkbonded one day or did you forget that?" Sunny pointed out calmly. Weird he was being calm.

"Shouldn't you listen to mine?" She shot back after another vicious stab to her meal. Poor french toast was being mutilated because she couldn't control her frayed temper. Between stabs she did manage to stuff bites into her mouth much too fast to be considered anything but a choking hazard. But hey slag happens right? "This is something that I want to do regardless of how pissed of it makes you. I've always been a fighter even when I was with the others and it's what I'm most comfortable doing. As far as I'm concerned if I am actually employed at NEST at least I'm getting paid for killing stuff." And she would have access to medical care...which she never had because doctors would freak out when they realized her blood was purple and blue. So she avoided doctors after battles and nursed her own injuries no matter how grievous they may be.

Neither of them looked happy. "Babe you can be killed-"

"So can you." She pointed out quietly. "And I'm used to almost being killed and not having anybot to tend to me afterwards! At least if I do this Ratchet will be there to treat me so that I don't have to do it myself. So I really don't see what the deal is with you two being so difficult."

Sunny scowled at her from across the table. "The big deal is that if you take a direct shot from a con weapon you're dead regardless! How is Ratchet supposed to treat you if you're splattered across the ground?"

"Like they're going to hit me! You forget that I can see what they're going to do before they even do it! I don't need to be stronger or more durable then them to beat them! I'm faster and smarter and I can predict their moves with such accuracy and precision that I can easily dodge and evade each attack." Her fists curled around her fork making it dig into her fist so much that she was pretty sure that she dented or bent it. But she didn't care about that at all. All she cared about was making her point to the two slaggers that had somehow captured her spark. Love or not she was not going to be controlled! She was her own person and she was going to make her own decisions.

This was getting her nowhere... Neither of them looked willing to budge or relent on the issue. So she racked her head to think of something that would make them feel better and more pliant to her will. An idea came to her after a moment of deliberating and she grinned. "How about a compromise? I will become a marksman like my file says, but I will only go out with you two or with the other bots. I won't be put on a strictly human team."

Twin scowls pulled at each of their handsome faces. "Field medic." Sunny mumbled.

"Marksman." She argued back with growing irritation.

"Field medic. No fighting." Sunny growled again.

"MARKSMAN!" She whisper yelled. "It's marksman or something more dangerous like demo expert or something and let me tell you I am GOOD with explosives buddy!"

Sunny gritted his pure white teeth against his bottom lip and growled at her lowly. "Femme if I didn't...I would smack some sense into you."

"Nope cause there's no such thing as common sense in my mind."

"Clearly." Sunny sighed. "We'll only allow it if Optimus agrees to make the three of us a trine. This way we can look out for you on the battlefield. And please do not argue with us on this babe because it will get you nowhere. This is our condition since you want to be so difficult about the whole mess."

She weighed it in her head before nodding in acceptance. "Ok then if Optimus agrees to it then we have a deal. If not I'll just go and-"

"Do nothing." Sides suddenly reprimanded her. "If he says no then you'll do something else."

"You already agreed." Sunny pointed out.

She bit her tongue until she could taste her own energon. Fragging aftholes backing her into a corner! But she would chance it so that she could fight.

* * *

><p>"So you are willing to allow her to be a marksman so long as she is placed in your care on the battlefield?" Optimus made sure to clarify after the three of them had explained the conversation that they had earlier that morning.<p>

"Yes. But if that is too difficult for you to make work then she can do something else."

Lilah glared at him from where she was sitting on Sides's shoulder plates. "They're worried that I'm going to get blown up or something." She snorted.

"Which is plausible because you could be blown up or stomped on or shot. So I will ask you again before I make my decision, are you willing to take that risk knowing that you could die?" Optimus leveled her with his dark blue optics.

There wasn't even a moment's hesitation. "Yes. It's nothing that I haven't faced before."

If it weren't for the fact that she was his femme and he was worried about her he would commend her bravery. But as it was all he could do was scowl angrily when the possibility of her getting hurt crossed his processor. Because it was a very real possibility for her and she wouldn't be able to take the sheer force of a con's attack like he and his brother could. That scared him and made him remember when he and Sides had thought that Skywarp had crushed her. He shuddered to think about what would have happened if she had not used her special powers to alter the course of his attack...she would have been crushed.

"Very well then. I will allow the three of you to work together from now on as a trine so long as there are no health issues interfering with her ability to perform her duties. That means that I want you to have regular visits to Ratchet to make sure that you are fit for combat at all times."

"Yes of course." She easily agreed looking quite pleased with the whole deal.

"And if Ratchet finds you unfit you will stay on base. No fighting or protesting until you are well enough to tend to your duties."

"Ok I hear you."

"Good. Well you will have your first assignment with the twins tomorrow with the way things are looking. We have some new arrivals who are set to land tomorrow night, and since the twins will be going you will as well."

"We don't know if they Autobots or cons yet do we?" He asked Optimus since he hadn't heard anything else yet.

"No we are unsure as to whether they are cons or not. That is why we are taking a slightly larger party to greet then since there are three signatures incoming. It will consist of myself, Ironhide, Ratchet, you two, and now Lilah, as well as several platoons of NEST soldiers."

"Right." His optics drifted to Lilah again resting on her warily. If anything happened to her he and Sides were going to be beside themselves.

**'We'll protect her then. She won't leave our sight.'**

**'Right. She won't leave our sight.'**

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! I'm going to keep the new bots a secret until next chapter! See you then!<p> 


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

* * *

><p>Here's the surprise reveal of the three bots! I hope you all enjoy the choices and the chapter lol! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!<p>

The sun had already set in the densely forested area near Yellow Stone National park where the bots signatures were set to crash anytime now. She sat propped on Sides shoulder staring up at the night sky watching with both eyes and senses for the new arrivals. So far she could sense their sparks and to a limited extent their power levels, but little else was discernible at this time since they were still a good distance away.

Her FAL was resting easily on her back, a comforting weight to her even if she did get the impression that these sparks incoming were light and more pure then a con's were. In fact she was almost positive that they were Autobots. "Hey Optimus?"

The leader of the Auto bots looked over from his conversation with Ratchet. "Yes?"

"Their signatures seem light...well lighter than a con's would be. And even from here I can tell that the three of them have very active processors," she commented as her eyes finally made out the three meteor like streaks that were still a good ways off. In moments they would land and then she could get a proper feel for them.

Ratchet looked surprised because of what she had said. "You can feel things like that from so far away?"

"Yeah it's normal for me if I try," she shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal because it really wasn't. And besides there were more important things to think about than her freaky super powers and stuff. Like the three streaks of glowing destruction that were about to destroy one of the wonders of America or whatever it was called.

The three meteors arced down from the night sky roaring over their heads and disappearing over the tree line. Astroseconds later there were a series of loud bangs sending shockwaves out across the ground and making the trees shake.

She cocked her head to the side as an influx of new information came to her in that moment. Noise. Incessant noise going on all of the time...in multiple helms. Variables dancing around being weighed and dismissed, random muttering and babbling, chemical equations and scientific formulas...

They were already giving her a headache... "So one's a fragging chatterbox that never shuts up. The second one is always thinking constantly about battle strategies and variables and slag. And the third one is thinking about how he can make an Energon converter without blowing himself up in the process...but I think that it should be noted that he is willing to be blown up a few times for said experiment."

Silence greeted her words...a normal occurrence lately. And one that was highly irritating for her to have to be subjected to. "What?! Why is what I just said so weird?" she snapped at the staring bots.

A digit suddenly touched her back rubbing it soothingly. "Relax sweets they don't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything. Ratchet and Hide just haven't seen your special talents in action yet yeah? It probably really surprised them."

"It's...weird," Ironhide suddenly muttered after looking away.

Sunny snorted beside her. "You have no idea."

"Hey it is not weird!" She gritted her teeth when the incessant noise started up again from the first signature. "And will someone tell that guy to shut up already?! I can't think straight when he keeps going ssssshshsshshshshshshshshssh constantly!"

"Bluestreak," the twins muttered simultaneously.

Well whoever Bluestreak was she would have to make sure to not leave her power on around him or else he would make her head explode.

"Let us go and meet the new arrivals then shall we? Auto bots move out!" Optimus gave the command to move so everybot started forward towards the crash site.

The humans started forward in their vehicles, tanks, hummers, etc... Point is that it was loud and pretty pointless in her opinion to use such bulky and slow vehicles. A con or any other bot would destroy them before the humans could even get away. It was better for them to be on their own feet where they could conversely use their size to their advantage. But nope! They weren't smart enough! That's why she shook her head at them from where she was sitting on Sides shoulder.

Other than teasing the soldiers internally she alternated between watching the forest around them from above the trees, another perk of having alien boyfriends, and watching Optimus walk ahead of them. Why? She was unsure. But since he had allowed her to fight in NEST so long as she was with the twins of course, she had found a new kind of respect for him. All she had really known was the prejudice that most mechs had for femmes and their abilities, yet here she was truly valued. At least a little bit.

That was why she was taking her duties so seriously for once. Not for one moment on their little trip did she relax her senses in case cons showed up. Nor did she stop taking in the information being transmitted from the three mechs ahead. That was why when they drew closer she could tell that one of them had sustained heavy injuries. "Ratchet the last signature has sustained some nasty wounds that need treatment."

Their procession sped up after that to reach the group.

They broke through another tree line, or more like broke down another tree line, into a clearing where smoke was billowing out of the ground. Two figures were standing over a third downed figure, Ratchet immediately rushed forward to assist the dark smoky black colored mech with a red Auto bot insignia on his chassis. His audio receptors were flashing atop his head showing clear distress.

Beside him was a blue bot that was running his mouth constantly and she could hear it even from here. But now that she was closer she could tell that he was talking, talking, talking all the time to fight off the pain of the past that was always rolling around inside. And for that reason she couldn't hate him because she knew what that was like, not the talking, but fighting the pain. There were demons just waiting to sink their poison into his processor and talking was the way that he dealt with that.

Next was a large black and white mech with doorwings and red antennas on his helm. He was bulky and definitely a bot that was competent in whatever he did... But she could also sense that he was most comfortable being alone and separated from the other bots. He was quiet and reserved, slow to anger, and severe. His helm was always racing with battle strategies...all the time. Variables and equations floating around in that giant battle computer.

She frowned and patted Sides shoulder before she jumped down so that he wouldn't have a spark attack when she did.

"Sweetspark where are you going?" She felt more then saw the two mechs following after her as she approached the other two mechs.

Both of whom looked over at her when she stopped in front of them. The blue one smiled brightly and started babbling about how small she was and how cute she was, while the black and white one just eyed her warily. "So you're Prowl right?"

Surprise barely flashed through the larger mech's optics. "I am. And who are you?" he responded in a stoic tone.

"Lilah," she replied just as quietly. This was a first for her, not the whole being around a bot thing, but approaching a bot that she didn't know peacefully. Pit even with the other Auto bots she had attacked Sunny at first! "So ummm how do you handle all that stuff floating around in your helm all day? Doesn't it short you out and stuff?" Nice conversation topic Lilah...real nice.

"Hey Prowl she knows about your battle computer. Is that supposed to happen? Oh wait it's probably not supposed to happen huh? It's actually kind of weird that she knew about that at all! So how did you even know, did Optimus tell you? Oh wait I didn't introduce myself! My name is Bluestreak and I'm a marksman for the Auto bot army! It's nice to meet you Lilah from earth! So what are your favorite things to do? And why are you with the twins? Did they kidnap you or something? Do you want me to talk to Optimus about releasing you?"

Before he could keep going she held a hand up to get his attention. "No Bluestreak they didn't kidnap me. Uhhh we'll talk about why I'm with them later okay? For now who is that guy?" She pointed over to the down bot whom Ratchet was working on still.

"Wheeljack he-" Before Bluestreak could start on another tangent Prowl slapped a servo over the blue marksman's mouth plates.

"Wheeljack. He's a scientist," Prowl responded quietly.

"Yeah I figured that with the way he was-" She snapped her mouth shut and laughed nervously. Inside she was berating herself for being a little bit too open with these bots when she really didn't know them or if she could trust them. They didn't seem malicious to her and that had to count for something...right? At least her newer frame of mind didn't immediately label them as enemies that could not be trusted.

Prowl raised an optic ridge at her.

She shuffled her feet in the dirt poking at bits of metal with her black knee length boots. This was so fragging awkward thanks to her big mouth... When did she even start being so open about slag like this?

"Who is the youngling talking to Prowl Ratchet?" An unfamiliar voice with a British accent asked.

When she looked over at Ratchet and the others the downed bot was peering at her from around the CMO's form inquisitively. His helm fins were flashing several different colors...probably from damage done to his helm or something. "Umm I'm Lilah."

Wheeljack's optics flashed once mouth plates opening to make some sort of comment only to stop short with a yelp because of something that Ratchet did. "Ow confound it Ratchet! Watch the wiring please!"

"Oh shut up Wheeljack! I'm already pretty sure that these injuries were not caused by your landing and that means that you did something foolish again! So you deserve the pain being inflicted upon you!"

There was a loud series of yelps from Wheeljack after that. "Poor poor bastard." She yelped herself when she was suddenly yanked up by a bright golden servo when she had been too engrossed in watching Wheeljack squirm to really notice until it was too late. Or maybe it was because she was not afraid of Sunny that her senses didn't suddenly flare up like they normally would.

Whatever the case when she was set on Sunny's shoulder she could see the three newcomers staring wide opticked at her sitting on the scowling mech's shoulder. She guessed that they would have to explain at some point. Luckily Ratchet saved them from having to have the embarrassing conversation right now by declaring that Wheeljack needed to be moved back to the base as soon as possible.

Looks like they had time to work it all out.

* * *

><p>The next morning she was on her own. The twins had been called off for a meeting with Prowl who was already ordering items to be brought in to build a brig. She had the suspicion that he was lecturing them on behavior or something like that... Whatever it was they had not been at all pleased to have to leave her to go and spend time with him.<p>

Neither was she because she was still a little awkward around others human or bot. Arcee was gone on patrol with Ironhide and the Chevy twins so there really was nothing for her to do. And when there was nothing for her to do she wandered aimlessly.

And somehow the aimless wandering brought her to the rec room where the only beings inside at this time was a group of raunchy human soldiers. Most of them looked either drunk or hung over to her eyes or maybe it was the heavy scent of alcohol that was clinging to them?

She could still tell that they would give her trouble if she went in so she turned to make her way back out.

"Hey sweetface!" One of them called out to her before she could slip through the door.

She cursed and turned to glare at the one who had called her that. "Don't call me that."

The tall brown hair blue eye soldier grinned wolfishly at her. "Aww why not baby doll? You're a sight for sore eyes around this base baby girl I'm telling you. Too much dick for it to even be considered remotely cool you know?"

"No I don't know." And she turned away to leave the room and these idiots behind her. Before she could take two steps the one that she had been talking to latched onto her arm and dragged her back. She was so surprised at the amount of revulsion that shot through her that she didn't even have the mind to pull herself away at first. It was like she just locked up.

Several of the men wolf whistled at her while the main one manhandled her pulling her front flush against his. She suddenly came to her wits and growled at him. "Get your mother fucking hands off of me!"

"Hey she's got a dirty mouth Brady maybe we should show her how to use it?" One of the other soldiers, a blonde hair green eyed male grinned at her lustfully. Several of the others laughed and joined in cat calling and whistling at her.

She grabbed the arms that were pinning her and roughly shoved them away from her. "Take a hint dickless! I don't want you or any of your lackeys here! So get your hands off before I knock you out!" Her irritation was already growing too dangerous heights and she doubted that it would take much for her to lose it and punch this guy. If she did he was going to have to have reconstructive surgery to make him look pretty again.

The male only scowled, reminding her so much of Skylar that it was unreal. His hands snaked down and landed on her aft squeezing it. "Don't tell me what to do bitch."

"Get. Your. Fragging. Hands. Off. Of. Me!" Before she could knock his lights out there was the distinct sound of vents hitching making her falter. And then there was the sound of loud roaring as somebot stomped over to her and yanked her up from the soldier's hold. She expected it to be gold or red for Sides or Sunny, but instead they were green. She turned and looked at the CMO snarling face plates. "Ratchet?"

Ratchet didn't even look at her; no he was too busy glaring death at the now cowering human males. "Do not ever put your hands on a femme like that against her consent! What are you a bunch of animals with no ability for higher thinking?"

Was he sticking up for her? She wanted to ask him why but he gave her no time to talk as he stepped forward and stomped his large pede with unneeded aggression. "Do not ever let me catch you putting your hands on her again or there will be consequences for your actions. Do you understand me?"

Several of the men nodded and more whimpered in open fear.

"Good." Was all that Ratchet said in a derisive tone as he spun and stalked out of the rec room with her in his servo. Once they were out of sight of the rec room he turned down to look at her worriedly. "Are you all right youngling? Did they do anything else besides touching you over your clothing?"

"No. I was about to knock the slag out of that guy before you got there actually. The only reason that I hadn't already was because he surprised me when he actually touched me in the first place. Believe me I was about to cost him a lot of money in reconstructive surgery to make his face look passable again." She grinned devilishly at the thought probably looking like that cat from Cinderella or something when he smiled deviously. Ok so no more Disney movies before bed anymore okay?

Ratchet snorted as he stopped in front of the med bay doors. "I would have liked to have seen that honestly. That lot of soldiers gives the entire human race a bad name with their shenanigans. Always hassling the femme staff and creating a ruckus." He sighed and deposited her onto his desk.

She looked around at the datapads curiously. "Umm why did you bring me in here Ratchet? Not that I'm not grateful that you helped me and all..." She trailed off quietly while he powered on a datapad and sat it in front of her.

He eyed her quietly for a moment and pointed to the screen when it lit up showing the form of a Cybertronian on the screen with certain parts highlighted. "I wanted you to know more about our bodies so that you could assist me in the med bay in your free time."

"Uhhh but I'm not a medic Ratchet...I can identify injuries somewhat in your bodies but I don't know the first thing about treating them." She pointed out even as she looked the form on the screen over closely. Main Energon cables, optic Energon wiring, spark, fuel tanks, spark chamber, hydraulic presses in the arms and legs, circuitry systems...etc. Their bodies really were interesting at least.

Something did bother her though. "Umm Ratchet doesn't the treaty forbid any earthlings from knowing too much about the Cybertronian body? Why would you show me and teach me things?"

"Because you aren't a full blooded human sweetling." Ratchet shifted and grabbed several more datapads for her. "You are one of us in spark and that is why I trust you to not speak a word of what you learn here to Galloway or any other humans."

She jerked back in surprise at the word trust used by him in regards to her. Especially since she still felt some apprehension around him and the others...and here he was saying that he trusted her enough to teach her about their bodies so that she could help him treat wounded Cybertronians.

"Ratchet...thank you for trusting me. I promise that I won't say a thing to anybot about any of this even if they try to torture it out of me. It's the least I can do when you've placed your faith in me...when I'm still so scared to put my faith in others." A real smile pulled at her lips as her spark lurched in sudden joy. It felt kind of good to have other bots that really did seem to accept and care for her despite all of her secrets and...her past.

"I know you will sweetling. So while we have some time why don't we go over the basics of tending to non-life threatening wounds?" She quickly found herself immersed in the lessons in no time. Maybe she could be a field medic/marksman or something?

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

That was how he and Sunny found her several joors later. Hunched over a datapad with Ratchet pointing out certain body parts and how they functioned, as well as the proper ways to repair them. At first he raised an optic ridge and pointed at her and Ratchet who was gently running a servo down their femme's back as he lectured her.

**'Umm is it me or is Hatchet acting a lot more strange than normal?'**

Sunny grunted and eyed the servo touching their femme with distaste. **'Yeah I would say so bro...I wish he'd stop touching her like that. She's our femme and only we get to touch her.'**

He rolled his optics and skated closer to Ratchet's desk.

"The main Energon artery is located in the neck just like a human s is, when it is severed is...?" Ratchet trailed off expectantly.

"Put pressure on the wound and staunch it?" Lilah guessed.

**'I thought she didn't want to be a medic?'** Sunny grumbled sourly.

**'Me either...maybe she changed her mind?'** He guessed as he watched the two of them go back and forth easily. It was surprising actually to see her so at ease with a bot that wasn't him or his brother but it wasn't unwelcome. Well her talking to them, they both could do without the other mechs touching her even if they did know that it was not romantic on Ratchet's part.

"And if there is a tear in the armor that cuts through to the protoform out in the field?"

"Field patch it..."

"Right. And how do you field patch it?"

"Ummm with sterilized metal plating and a medical welder?"

"Right. You're going to be able to help me out in the med bay in no time sweetling," Ratchet praised her quietly. He retrieved several datapads before hooking a cable from them into a human laptop. Where did he even get one of those? It looked brand new.

"Ratchet that's all common sense stuff that even I know how to do with humans...I was a nurse at several different times you know? It's just like stitching and even cauterizing wounds and stuff. I know how to do all that so this stuff isn't that difficult to grasp," Lila pointed out eyeing what Ratchet was doing with interest. "Why do you have a laptop in here anyways? And what are you doing to it?"

"Downloading information to it for you to study," he answered her.

"Ok...why? I'm not actually a medic Ratchet, I'm a marksman remember?" Her eyes drifted over to him and Sunny and brightened. "Sides! Sunny! How was being lectured by Prowly?"

He grinned and swiped her up from the desk so that he could cuddle her against his face plates. "Boring! He was giving us lectures because he found out that we were your Guardians... It was now you must be careful not to crush her or step on her this, and do not forget to make sure that she is properly fed that, and do not pull her into your bouts of idiocy this!"

She giggled and pressed her soft warm lips against his own large metal ones. "Oh? At least he doesn't know about the whole courting thing right? So he can't lecture you on it yet."

Sunny grunted and he could feel the irritation over the bond from his brother. "Actually he did tell him about that as well. That's why we took so much longer than we were expecting because Prowl decided to lecture us on proper courting as well. He also told us that we would be thrown in the brig for a millennia if we did anything to hurt you."

Lilah stared at them with wide optics. "Why would he even say that? He barely even knows me."

He chuckled at her nuzzling her again just because he could and also because he wanted to see her blush. "Because you're too damn adorable and endearing for your own good sweetspark."

Like he expected she blushed a deep cranberry blue color and stuttered some sort of protest. "N-Nuh uh! I am so not endearing Sides! He probably was just worried that you were trying to play me or something!"

"If that's true then why did Ratchet bring you in here? He knows that we wouldn't play you, so there's no reason for him to want to spend time with you unless you really are too cute for your own good," he pointed out smugly.

Ratchet turned to them with a raised optic ridge and snorted. "I do enjoy her company quite a deal more than yours. As for why I brought her here there were two reasons. One being that I wanted to see if she would be my apprentice in her free time since I do need the help and none of the other bots on base are interested. And the second reason was because I found her being-"

"Ratchet shhhh!" Lilah suddenly exclaimed cutting the CMO off.

_**'The second reason being that I found her being harassed by several of the human soldiers in the rec room today.'** _He finished over the comm link.

Both he and Sunny scowled. _**'Harassing her how? And who was it? I want fragging pictures!'**_

Another snort. _**'Harassing her sexually by groping her and making lewd comments. As for pictures I knew you would want them so I just sent them to you.'**_

His vents hitched...how dare a pathetic squishy touch their femme?! This called for retribution in the form of threats and pranks! Or maybe in Sunny's case just the threatening part. His processor beeped when the pictures Ratchet sent appeared on his HUD.

He opened the first file and grimaced at the rather ugly human male...loose dirty colored hair and mucky brown eyes with acne dotting his face. He had the perfect prank idea for him! All he had to do was get some help for this part.

Next picture was of a blonde male with bright green eyes that could be considered good looking. He looked pretty vain and prideful even in this picture to him. Oh he would definitely be able to straighten him out.

The last picture was of a tall brown haired male with blue eyes that was every bit as arrogant looking as the last male. The only difference was that this male had a darker look in his optics then the last male. Yes he definitely needed to be straightened out and he had just the idea.

Lilah was suddenly snatched from his servos by Sunny who grunted in agreement. "Did they do anything to you babe? What did they do to you?"

Lilah only scowled darkly at Ratchet and muttered something about him being a traitor. She sighed and turned big wide watery optics up at Sunny.

Sunny scowled not at all impressed with her attempt to get out of talking about it. "Tell me babe. Or I can just go and find out for myself and I can guarantee that it will only end badly."

"But Sunny..." she whined.

"He's being serious sweetspark so I would tell him."

She groaned in defeat and resignation turning narrowed angry optics in his direction. "They called me names like baby doll and sweet face...and when I told them not to call me that one of them said that I was a sight for sore eyes cause there was too much dick on the base as it was. So I tried to leave and one of them grabbed my arm and it surprised me so I kind of froze for a minute and that was enough for him to pull me chest to chest with him."

"I told him to get his motherfucking hands off of me and one of the others said that I had a dirty mouth...and that they should teach me how to use it. So I got pissed and told them that I wasn't interested in any of them and their small dicks..." She coughed awkwardly and turned to stare at the wall more intently. "And then I think his name was Brady...grabbed my aft and called me a bitch. That was when Ratchet came and broke it up."

He was seething by the end of her story. Those little fraggers were going to pay for touching her like that and saying things like that to her! It was all that he could do to keep the snarl from forcing its way out of his mouth plates.

Sunny however did not have that control and he snarled openly. "I'll fragging kill them!"

Lilah gasped and stood up on Sunny's servo pointing at his face. "You can't do that Sunny! Optimus will have your aft for it and so will Prowl! And besides it isn't like they could actually force me to do anything even if they tried! Ratchet came right when I was about to break his face in actually so I had it under control!"

"That's not the point baby! I may be a sociopathic killing machine but even I would never put my servos on a femme against her will! And nobot is going to do that to my femme while I'm around! I don't care what Optimus or even Prowl say I am going to do something about this!"

"You're not the only one," he muttered darkly.

"But you can't kill them! Promise me!" She looked between the two of them expectantly with those bright rich green optics.

"The only reason I won't is because Optimus will probably offline us if we do and we don't want to leave you behind. So no we won't kill them...maim or prank them until their pathetic little human minds break...now that's another thing." His digits slid over her back gently and down over her aft poking at it. He smirked when she squealed and batted his digits away. "Whoops sorry sweets your aft is so nice that I got carried away."

"Pervert..." she stammered around a blush.

"Are you quite done? I do have some things that I need to give to the youngling." All of them turned to Ratchet who was holding out his servo for Lilah to take the laptop from him. She scrambled to the end of Sunny's servo and hopped across to Ratchet's before grabbing the laptop and hopping back over onto her previous place.

"Make sure that the humans do not see that sweetling. I trust you not to inform anybot of what is on that drive. It is encrypted to only open with a pass code and it has the highest security firewall that I can create so no human will be able to hack it. The first code that will be put in will become the permanent pass code so choose wisely."

Lilah grinned and saluted Ratchet. "Okey dokey Ratchy!"

Ratchet scowled. "Don't call me that sweetling."

"Turnabout is fair play Ratchy. You call me sweetling I'll call you Ratchy."

Yeah definitely weird...even Sunny thought that the two of them were much too close to be considered normal. Not that they were getting a romantic undercurrent, oh no if it was that then their gladiator programming would have kicked on making them destroy the threat to what was theirs in astroseconds. It was more like a...familiar bond like an uncle and a sparkling...or maybe a mech creator to their sparkling. Still it was weird because Ratchet had apprentices before like First aid and Jolt, yet he had never been quite so close to those two. That isn't to say that they did not have strong bonds, but it had not been nearly as fast as this bonding between these two was going.

Ratchet snorted. "Fine. I want to see you after your marksman training tomorrow morning sweetling. Study the first page of the information and we will go over it tomorrow."

"Ratchet...why exactly are you pushing this when I'm already being trained as a marksman?"

"Because we need another medic like I said earlier. And also because I believe that you are quite a deal more intelligent than any human and that is a main trait that is required of a medic."

Once again this was just weird...Ratchet complimenting somebot.

"Ok I'll try but...I'm not dropping the marksman thing just so that all of you know." At that bit she gave both him and Sunny stern looks begging them to try and say something about it.

"Fine we won't say anything," he muttered. "Come on Sunny we got stuff to take care of right?"

Sunny smirked darkly. "Yeah."

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><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

Sides was putting the pranks into place while he sat curled up on Lilah's bed with her in his holoform while she read over the notes that Ratchet wanted her to go over. His servos absently played with the strands of hair that had come loose from the messy bun that she had thrown her hair up into.

So strange to think about how at ease and content he was being around her when he still detested fleshies almost as much as he detested cons. They were oily and smelly...and greasy. He shuddered to think about touching one and smearing his paint. But he noticed that she was completely different. She smelled of fresh plants called flowers and something that Bee had called vanilla. Her smell was intoxicating even from the beginning and she was not oily either so he never had to worry about her smearing his paint.

Her skin was soft and smooth, even the grooves between the scars on her chest and back and upper arms... She had to be so strong to endure whatever she had gone through and survive because he had similar scars on his own protoform and he had to go through pure pit to get them. But with Shockwave as her mech creator he had to wonder if...if the bastard had a servo in it himself. And if he did then he felt sympathy for their femme for having to endure what the scientist had probably done to her. He had been there before a few times...it was agonizing.

"What are you thinking about Sunny?"

"How much you surprise me," he answered immediately.

She flipped her laptop shut after powering it down before sitting it on her nightstand and turning around so that she was on her knees between his legs. "I surprise you? How so?" She sidled closer to him and leaned her front against his wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Because you're so different from squishies...and I know that you aren't a full blooded one but I just expected you to have more of their physical traits besides your appearance." He lifted his servo and ran his digits through her long side-swept bangs. "You smell good...and you don't smear my paint when you touch my real form. And...for a half squishy you're really..." He paused and swallowed heavily before getting out what was on his processor. "You're really beautiful and strong."

Surprise made those dark sage green optics flash a deep rich enchanting gold color captivating him. "People...and bots don't really call me beautiful." She blushed heavily and looked down at her lap.

"I don't...really call femmes that too often either," he muttered awkwardly. Talking really was not his strong suit and he had to really watch everything that he said with her for fear of hurting her feelings or saying something stupid. But he really just wished that he could actually say what was on his processor without so much difficulty. He just wished that he was able to compliment her more openly like Sides was...

"Well then I should be honored that such a...handsome mech thinks I'm pretty." Her optics were looking at everything but him keying him in on the fact that she was just as embarrassed as he was.

And strangely enough that made this whole situation a little more bearable for him. If she was embarrassed then it meant that she was not at all used to this as well and he had nothing to be compared with. Or at least anything good.

"You should be babe cause I'm the most handsome mech in the universe so if I say something looks good it does. And I think you look fragging phenomenal." Oh yeah he was sooo good! Take that Sides wherever the frag you are!

The femme in his lap shook her head at him and muttered quietly. "Flirt..."

His optics fell on her full pink lips... Would she be open to kissing him if he tried it? He had done it once at the carnival thing but he hadn't tried it since because he didn't want to push her too far. If he was being honest the wait was killing him...

"Babe?"

"Hmm?"

"Could I...I mean would it be okay if I uh kissed you again?"

Another flash of surprise in her optics and then they softened on him. "Yes I wouldn't mind that...just kissing though Sunny I'm not ready for more yet."

Instead of answering her verbally he smiled softly and took her chin in his servos so that he could pull her face to his. Her warm breath fanned over his face gently smelling like the sweet candy she had been eating while she studied.

It made his holoform's interface area tighten uncomfortably but he ignored is so that he could tilt her head to the side and claim her lips with his. The first touch was like a jolt of electric warmth shooting straight through his entire body. He couldn't help but to groan softly press a little bit harder against her lips moving in sync and sending more fire raging through him.

His servos fisted her hair and tugged at it hard enough to pull her back so that he could get up on his knees and kneel over her much shorter form. All without ever taking his mouth away from hers. He moved his lips faster against hers, uncaring that his holoform was actually secreting something wet from his mouth and that it was dripping down his chin. All he cared about was her chest pressed against his and panting heavily.

It was so hard to tell himself not to face her...it really was because she was just so damn beautiful and perfect. And he couldn't stop kissing her feverishly...no matter how hard he tried.

She kept a restraining hand on him the whole time gently pushing him back when he got too overzealous, not that he minded because she was keeping him in line when he promised no facing. If not for her keeping him there he may have pinned her to the berth beneath them and lost control.

He groaned louder this time and nipped at her bottom lip before soothing it with his glossa and moving down her neck kissing and suckling on the soft skin there.

"Sunny?"

"Hmmm?" He hummed around a mouthful of her soft skin. He could taste the Energon seeping through her skin as he nipped at it. So much better than that synergized slag.

"Too far...please stop."

He froze and released her skin as soon as those pleading words reached his holoform's ears. Drawing back up to her face he took in the rigidness of her shoulder and jaw, along with the pained look in her optics. And he felt bad because he had obviously gone a little too far for her comfort.

"Sorry babe I didn't mean to push you...I well I just didn't realize how good kissing you felt really until I got to do it again. Next time I won't lose it so much okay?"

"Ok..."

With that he dragged her back over to the wall at the head of her berth and propped her against his chest.

"I'm not a very good kisser..." she suddenly murmured.

"What are you talking about? You're a great kisser babe...at least I think so and if I think then it must be true." His comment earned him a narrow optic glare from his femme. He shrugged and leaned back further against the wall.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few breems or so. He just sat there thinking about how strange his life was turning out to be now that she was in it...and how much that didn't bother him. And for somebot that had as many issues as he did in trusting and even letting others close that was saying something.

There wasn't time for him to get too involved in thinking of his past because the door to Lilah's room slid open before Sideswipe's bipedal mode skated in. When his twin's optics landed on him in holoform with Lilah curled up on his chest he grinned and shifted down to alt mode so that he too could activate his holoform.

Sides holoform appeared out of nowhere and lunged for the berth jostling Lilah who was almost in recharge wide awake. "Sweets I got something to show you!" Sides grinned at her and grabbed a camera that he had in his pocket.

"Where did you even get that?" he asked dryly.

"Lennox gave it to me when I asked him for a camera that I could show Lil stuff on." Sides grinned and powered the little device on causing his optics to reflect the bright light. He shifted through several pictures before holding the camera up so that both of them could see.

Lilah gasped.

He grinned and chuckled when his optics landed on a picture of one of the humans tied up to the flag pole that resided outside of the base...and he was still deeply locked in recharge and thus had no idea.

"Sides! Go get him down!" Lilah admonished him.

"Nope he shouldn't have touched your aft." His twin grinned and pulled the camera back to optic level so that he could shift through more pictures. "This one has me in it see?" He turned it to their faces again.

And sure enough there was Sides holoform standing over a sleeping soldier's bed, the acne covered soldier, with a pan of food grease and a paintbrush, which he was using to smear grease all over the sleeping male's face.

Lilah choked out a laugh. "How did you even know that it works like that?"

"Internet," Sides grinned whilst shifting through the pictures again. "Here look at this one!"

"Oh my Primus Sides you did not!" Lilah laughed out loud until Energon tears were streaming out of her optics.

He had to admit that seeing human interface rods drawn in bright purple permanent marker on the blonde male's face was quite amusing. "Good one Sides."

"I know I'm good...in fact I deserve a reward." His twin grinned at their femme.

"Ummm what kind of reward?" She stammered.

"Sunny got a kiss when he wasn't doing anything right? So I should get one too."

"Ok...but just a kiss nothing else." This time she was the one to lean up and initiate contact by pressing her lips against Sides . His twin was quick to respond by tilting her head and deepening it. Their lips moved together languidly, pleasure and contentedness filtering through the twin bond to him.

Just watching it was...making him ache again. "Slow down brother...you don't want to push her."

The two of them separated in surprise. Faces flushed and lips swollen, on her part at least from the contact.

"Sorry sweets. Didn't mean to make you nervous." Sides grinned at her flipping them in a quick move until she was laying sprawled out over his chest while he laid on the berth on his back.

"It's ok...I just...I don't have a lot of...experience."

"That's ok babe. We can learn together at your pace. And just so that you know we never agree to that." He pointed out because it was true. Frag em then lose em that had been his and Sides motto for a long time... Yet somehow that had changed and they hadn't even realized it until it had already happened.

"Thank you for that." She smiled softly at both of them before laying her head down on Sides chest and closing her optics.

Her breathing evened out relatively quickly as she slipped into recharge.

He and Sides shared a look before deciding to just recharge in holoform so that they could stay with her. Sides shifted her over so that her back was to him and he spooned up against it, pulling the covers up over them so that she wouldn't get cold.

He pressed one last kiss to her head before he too offlined himself for some recharge.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! What do you think of the new bots? Good choices? Let me know!<p> 


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

So I'm stumped on my other Sides/oc/Sunny story right now for some reason. I have a chapter started but I'm still working on it so I decided to do another chapter for this story! Thanks to all the reviewers, followers, favorites! It means a lot! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>She twitched...<p>

Bluestreak kept talking nonstop.

She breathed deep to prevent herself from freaking out at him. Concentrate on your practice...concentrate on your practice! She had to keep telling herself that as she lined her targets up and fired her gun.

But Blue just kept talking and talking...and it was making it hard for her to concentrate on what she was doing. She didn't want to be mean to him because he really did seem very nice in her opinion...but she really couldn't concentrate with all of the incessant chattering.

She tried anyways because she didn't really know how to make him stop short of telling him to shut the frag up. Which she would not do because she knew that talking was his way of coping with his pain. So in effect by telling him to shut the slag up she would be denying him the relief that it brought from the pain. And she wasn't going to do that.

Her eyes narrowed on the iron sight of her gun peering down the target range onto her small human shaped target. She lined up directly on the bulls eye breathed deeply through her mouth and pulled the trigger, all while ignoring Blue's chattering about how strange earth plants were.

He talked over the discharge of her gun when she wasn't even able to hear what he was saying due to the loud noise in her ear. He talked seemingly faster than her bullet flew towards the target...he talked even after her bullet hit her target...

And she let him. At least her practice was almost over now and next she had to go to the med bay as was her new schedule in the last few weeks. Learning how to repair bots with Ratchet was interesting, and thanks to the twins she had no shortage of time to practice helping the CMO out.

The two of them had even taken to having intense sparing sessions for the sole purpose of having injuries for her to actually practice on. They were so fragging weird.

"Hey Blue I'm gonna go to the med bay now okay?" She sat her gun down on the table near Ironhide.

Bluestreak stopped chattering for a moment to cock his helm to the side curiously. "Can...can I come too? Oh I mean only if you want me to! I just get really bored without anybot to talk to and since the other bots don't want to hear me talk I like talking to you instead cause you don't yell at me for it. So can I come and watch you practice today if I try really hard to be quiet?"

She weighed the options of Ratchet bludgeoning Bluestreak in the helm for talking too much if he were to accompany her to the med bay...which was pretty likely. But at the same time he looked like he was pretty lonely when she wasn't with him...and they had sort of become friends with one another as shocking as that was. "Only if you promise to be quiet Blue. If you don't Ratchet might hit you with a wrench." Primus knew that the twins were hit multiple times a day for anything imaginable...and afterwards they got shoved into the brig by Prowl for harassing Ratchet.

"Ok I'll be quiet! Promise!" Blue made a motion of zipping his mouth shut and tossing a key over his shoulder.

She laughed and gestured for him to follow her. "Come on then Blue if I'm late Ratchet might yell at me."

"Mmmmmm mmm mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmm," Blue responded in a high speed mumble.

Silly mech... They walked through the halls together in relative silence save for Blue's closed mouth chattering which she actually found quite humorous. As they passed by bots in the hall she would wave politely at them and they back at her. It was nice to actually have others who were openly polite and respectful to you.

And she was getting along much better with the other bots at base she even considered them friends. But of all the bots she was closest to Ratchet and Jazz over the rest save for the twins. She had even taken to hanging out with Jazz in the rec room almost daily, playing games, listening to music, or talking over strategies and stuff. It was actually much better than sitting at home in her old apartment alone staring at her TV and playing games by herself.

They stopped in front of the med bay door just as Sunny and Sides came limping around the corner from the training rooms. "What did you two do this time?" she asked incredulously. They had never hurt each other this bad before! Sides leg looked like it was bent backwards at the knee joint!

Sides opened his mouth to answer her when his optics finally landed on Bluestreak and his mouth fell into a scowl. "Why is he with you sweetspark?"

"Blue? We were practicing together earlier and he wanted to come and keep me company in the med bay while I worked with Ratchet. Why?"

Her twins were giving Bluestreak what could be called the death glare. She had no idea why they were doing it, and it hadn't only been Bluestreak either. Any mech on base that showed even the smallest amount of attention to her was instantly put on the receiving end of that look. Only Optimus, Ratchet, Jazz, and Prowl were exceptions! "Why are you glaring at him like that?"

Sunny's scowl only deepened as he made his way over to pluck her up from the floor, leaning in closer to Bluestreak to intimidate him at the same time. But he didn't answer her question he just opened the med bay door and walked in with Sides.

Ratchet was bent over a desk when they came in working on a datapad for something or other. He looked up when she came in and smiled at her, before shooting glares at the three mechs who were trailing in as well. The scowl only deepened when he saw Sides knee joint and Sunny's dislocated shoulder joint. "Can you two not be responsible for even a day?!"

Sunny grunted and sat her down on the berth that he laid down on. "We were sparing," he said simply.

"I know that slagger! You two have been doing that every cycle since Lilah started helping me in the med bay!" Ratchet made his way over and lifted Sunny's arm up so that he could assess the damage. "Sweetling could you come over here and hold onto this wiring while I pop the joint back into place?"

"Sure." She made her way around to Sunny's shoulder and crawled down into the nook of his armpit removing the small amount of plating there so that she could fully see the damage. Several frayed wires were sticking out, sensitive looking ones for good measure. She took them gently in her hands and held them out so that when Ratchet popped the joint back in place he wouldn't accidentally catch them.

Ratchet took a hold of Sunny's shoulder and upper arm and roughly jerked the arm up before shoving the joint back into his shoulder.

Sunny just grunted in pain as his shoulder joint was set with a loud pop. Other than that he made no sound to let his discomfort be known. "Did you do well with your target practice today babe?" he grunted out when Ratchet was busy looking over his arm none too gently.

"Yeah I did good. Blue was helping me since I still overcompensate the trajectory of the bullet sometimes. I think we're going to start practicing outside soon so I can get used to wind trajectory too," she informed him as she got to work on staunching the wires and reconnecting the frayed ends. There were a few wires that needed to be replaced completely and she made a mental note to get to those after she repaired the salvageable ones.

Low growls met her ears from both mechs.

"Oh shut the slag up you two! Blue has no interest in her like that and she has no interest in him like that! Cool your programming down before I have Prowl brig you!" Ratchet snapped from right behind her. "You need a few wires for that?"

"Yeah a few of them burned out." She started gingerly removing those ones from his protoform. Repairing bots was kind of like a mix between working on a car, and treating people with injuries. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't as hard as she had been expecting it to be.

She threaded the new wires into his exposed protoform and attached them to the ends connected to the spark before staunching them.

Ratchet must have gone on to tend to Sides because he was not looking her work over anymore and she could hear Sides cursing from a berth nearby. She looked up at Sunny as she finished his wiring and placed his plating back on. "So why do you two not like Bluestreak being around me?"

Sunny just grunted and glared at Blue. "Because you're our femme."

"Yes I am." He sat up and she leapt onto his chassis smoothly. "So I don't see what the problem is if I know that and you know that and Blue knows that. There's nothing between us other than friendship." She stepped onto his outstretched servo when he offered it so that he could lift her to face level with him.

His optics ran over her form intensely as he spoke. "We can't really help it babe...our gladiator programming makes us very territorial over what we considers...our's. And you are our femme that means that we will be especially aggressive when it comes to you."

She frowned and looked from Sunny to Sides and finally over at Bluestreak who was frowning at her. "But Sunny I...well I only care for you two like that and you should know that. Blue is my friend and I want to spend time with him too without angering you."

"Forget it sweetling." Ratchet looked up from Sides knee while he worked. "Gladiator programming is powerful. Until they are bonded to you it won't stop. After you are bonded however they should ease up for the most part..."

"For the most part...?" she echoed the end of his comment because she distinctly sensed that there was more to it than he had told her. And to be honest she was kind of scared of whatever it was that he had to say. She just hoped that...they would not get even worse after they bonded...whenever that was.

Ratchet gestured her over onto Sides berth so she leapt across and immediately grabbed several more wires while Ratchet worked to set the knee joint so that it would bend forward and not backward like it was. "I mean that as long as other unbonded mechs don't test their bond with you they should be ok. However if an unbonded mech makes any sort of advance on you their gladiator programming will kick on more strongly than ever. If that were to happen I would not be surprised if they offlined whoever was attempting to take you from them."

Her mind temporarily numbed while she went through the motions of helping her father figure do his work. So they would get even worse if they bonded? Why did she still want to bond anyways regardless of whether that threat would hang over her? She knew that she loved them even if she hadn't told them yet.

But to hear that they might kill...any unbonded mech over her? How could she prevent that from happening while still having that bond with them? Well they weren't exactly rushing the bond itself...so she had time to think of something. But should she go around after the actual bonding and tell each mech not to touch her or even flirt with her so that her mates wouldn't kill them? Yeah that sounded like a good plan. And if they didn't heed her warnings they would either get sucker punched or torn to shreds by Sides and Sunny.

But there was one thing that bothered her... "What about humans Ratchet? Would their programming kick on in that case as well?"

"Yes it would. Any threat or perceived suitor would not be alive long enough to tell about it." Ratchet looked up at her from setting Sides knee joint. "Did you repair those wires yet?"

"Huh?" When she looked down she realized that she had repaired them without even realizing it. "Yeah I did." She drew back so that Ratchet could put the bright red plating back on Sides knee. While he was doing that she climbed up on his chassis sitting down cross legged. "You two are going to be real pains in my aft aren't you?"

Sides frowned at her. "Are you all right with that? You know with the whole pain in your aft thing?"

The way he asked her that was like he was expecting her to say no and just walk away. It was meek and even a little scared or nervous. It surprised her. The feelings of uncertainty and fear that suddenly shot through him in that moment, straight through his chassis from his spark and right into hers.

It was so intense that she gasped and doubled over herself with one hand clutching at her spark. Why was he so fragging afraid?! Primus it was hurting her just to feel the waves forcing their way into her. She felt him move under her, her body reclined back into one of his servos when he did so.

His mouth plates were moving. Optics staring down at her with panic.

She gritted her teeth and shook her head at him. "We'll...make it work. If you can deal with my issues...I'll find a way to deal with yours."

Almost immediately there was a strong wave of disbelief from not just him but Sunny as well, and then it morphed into complete happiness and awe. She had somehow lifted a big weight off of their sparks but she had no idea how.

Somebot suddenly snatched her from Sides, the world around her shifting until Ratchet came into view. "A..ou...kay?"

"What?"

He grunted. "I said are you okay?" His optics lit up anyways and scanned her for anything that might be causing her pain.

"Yeah I'm fine Ratchy. Empathic abilities can sometimes cause physical distress so when Sides got so upset it made my own spark pained. But it's better now!" She reassured him and sat up.

"Are you sure? Your spark beat is slightly elevated."

"Normal." She shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "So do you need more help in here or do you want me to get these two out of your aft?"

"They can get out without you. I still want to teach you about the hydraulics systems for the legs today." Ratchet looked pointedly at the three gathered mechs and pointed at the door. "Out."

"But we want sweetspark!" Sides protested with a pout.

"Out. You can have her back later."

Both mechs growled loudly at Ratchet and refused to move without her.

BAM! BAM! Twin wrenches went soaring through the air and collided with both of their helms making Sides yelp and Sunny snarl.

"GET OUT OF MY MED BAY!" Ratchet roared with another wrench set to be thrown with deadly precision at both of their helms.

"We'll come back for you after you're done babe," Sunny grunted as the two of them made a hasty retreat. They both growled at Bluestreak as they passed him by before disappearing out the med bay door.

"I really don't understand those two sometimes! Oh wait I wasn't supposed to talk right?! Mmmmmmmmm mmmmmm. Mmmkmmmmphimmmmmmmmmssmsmsmmmmfmfmmdmjjsjsjnmmmm," Blue started mumbling with his mouth plates closed. All of that was cut off when Ratchet threw a wrench at his helm making him yelp and duck out the door to avoid more pain.

"Idiots," Ratchet muttered tiredly. "All right sweetling let's get to work on the wonderful workings of Cybertronian hydraulics..."

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Two joors later he and Sunny went to retrieve Lilah from the med bay after Ratchet had commed them to tell them that her lessons were over. He was especially eager to go and get her so that they could take her out for a drive. Anything to get her away from all of the unbonded mechs on base.

He opened the med bay doors and peered in cautiously just in case Ratchet was waiting to ambush them with wrenches. When none came flying at him they both stepped inside and made a bee line for Ratchet's desk where Lilah was sitting reading a datapad. "Where's Ratchet?"

"Hmm? Oh he had to go and see Optimus for something," she murmured without looking up from her reading.

Sunny snorted at her which finally made her look up at them in surprise. "Are you sure that you don't want to be a medic? You seem to enjoy sitting there and reading medical scans and charts all day."

Lilah scowled at him and pouted. "Mean..." Her lips suddenly pulled up into a wide grin after a moment though. "I am a medic though...a field medic in training. That means that I get to go out and be in the field...and be a medic. Ohhh burned!"

**'Little femme found a fragging loophole in our deal!'**

He pouted. **'She did...maybe she's too smart for us?'**

His question earned him a smack to the back of the helm from Sunny.** 'Idiot! Just because you're a dumbaft doesn't mean that I am!'**

"Are you two arguing again?" Lilah asked dubiously after she powered off her datapad. Quite amusing to look at since the datapad as bigger than she was. She picked it up and replaced it on Ratchet's pile with the rest before she came to the edge of the table and held her arms up for one of them to grab her.

His servo flashed out before Sunny could and grabbed her up. "Yup we were arguing about how stupid Sunny was for-" A servo roughly smacked the back of his helm again. "For not realizing how much smarter you are than him!" he yelped out.

Sunny growled again. "Shut up idiot! And give her to me before your idiocy gets her killed!"

"Nope. Cause your aggression might get her killed." He grinned cheekily at his twin and took off running towards the med bay door.

"SIDESWIPE GET BACK HERE!" Sunny roared.

"No I'm taking Lil for a drive!" He skidded out the med bay doors and took off racing down the corridor towards the main hangar. "Hey sweets you up for a race with Sunny?"

"Sure. Permitted that you don't get me killed somehow in said race," Lil giggled at him from his servo.

"Of course I won't! Sunny would kill me slowly and painfully if I let anything happen to you." He tore into the main hangar bypassing Optimus, Ironhide, and Ratchet who were talking to Prowl and Jazz. "We're going out guys see you later!" he shouted to them as he passed by.

"SIDES I WILL FRAGGING MURDER YOU! GIVE MY FEMME TO ME RIGHT NOW!"

"Are they at it again?"

"I thin' so Prowler."

He shifted to alt mode with Lilah in his passenger seat before tearing out of the hangar and down the work road that led to their base.

Another engine roared behind him when Sunny came shooting like a rocket down the road as well. Lilah turned in his seat and grinned at Sunny's alt mode which was rapidly gaining on them. "You better move faster Sides cause Sunny's about to aft bump you!"

His frame jerked when Sunny actually did bump him. "Hey I have precious cargo in here Sunny!"

"Then you shouldn't be driving! Pit you're lucky I let you walk when you're holding her!" Sunny's voice roared through the com link making Lil laugh because she could hear it through his speakers.

"I am perfectly capable of running and holding her at the same time! Have I ever done something reckless and stupid before?" Silence greeted him from both ends. "Primus don't both jump to reassure me at the same time!" he grunted.

Lil laughed nervously and gave his seat a firm pat. "It's ok Sides I know that you wouldn't drop me while you were running."

"At least somebot has faith in me Sunny!" he exclaimed hurt. If only he was in bipedal mode he could complete the whole look by falling onto his knees and holding out a hand dramatically towards his twin.

"You have serious issues Sides," Sunny muttered through the com link. "So where are we going?"

"To the movie theater! I wanna see Annabelle that new scary movie that came out!"

"Nooooo not a crazy doll movie Sides," Lilah whined.

"Please? You can hide in my shoulder all that you want to! Promise! And I brought lots of earth credits with me sweets so I'll buy you anything you want at the theater promise!"

"Pop and popcorn and candy?"

"Yup! What's popcorn by the way? Is it like that corn on the cob stuff that you made the other day?"

She laughed at him and shook her head. "No Sides it isn't. You'll see what it is while you eat it while I'm too scared to look out from your shoulder to eat it myself."

He snickered at her. "Ok wimp."

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

"I hate you Sides. I really do." He grumbled at his twin when a squishy accidentally bumped into his holoform. The short blonde femme turned to him in surprise and smiled seductively when she saw him. "Not interested so get lost," he deadpanned gruffly.

The blonde scowled at him and made her way down the sidewalk. They were currently standing outside of the theater waiting in line to get tickets to this movie that Sides wanted to see...and they had been waiting for close to twenty minutes since the lines were so long. And he was not happy about it.

"Calm down Sunshine!" Sides grinned at him smugly. **'Just wait until you're in the theater and she's scared...then she's gonna be all for rough cuddling. You can thank me then.'** He added the last part over the bond so that Lilah couldn't hear it since she was standing between them.

He just grunted because that was the only thing that would make him feel even remotely better. If they could only get into the damn theater...and away from prying optics from males and females! A soft touch on his chest drew his attention down to Lilah's glove covered servo. He raised a brow at her. "What's up?"

She looked distracted and she kept glancing around to the sides nervously. "Umm...nothing. I just don't do well with crowds..."

Neither did he. "Me either." He wrapped his arms around her tightly and nuzzled his face into her dark red hair.

The line moved a little bit and they moved with it. Sides turned back to them and grinned when he saw them cuddling. "Aww group hug!" He exclaimed and lunged at their femme from behind.

She squealed when the second set of arms engulfed her. "Sides don't do that! You fragging scared me!"

"Sorry sweets I just felt left out of all of the love." Sides grinned into the other side of her crown.

"Sure," she mumbled quietly.

It fell silent after that again but for him it wasn't uncomfortable. The line kept moving slowly...he kept moving with it taking her and Sides with him since Sides was pinning her in and the idiot was forgetting to watch the line.

Lilah started fidgeting when they were about half way to the doors looking up towards the streets warily for something. But she didn't realize that he was watching her either that or she didn't care. Her eyes kept scanning the crowds gathered on both sides of the street relentlessly.

He didn't know what to make of it really. So far he didn't sense any cons nearby with his scanners, and they hadn't received any coms from base that there was any con activity so that didn't seem like it would be what she was looking for.

So he kept watching her, and eventually Sides caught onto his mood and lifted his head so that he was watching her too. She never once turned to acknowledge either of them when her eyes locked on one particular spot on the other side of the street. Her eyes flashed once changing colors and she partially buried her face into his bicep to hide her glowing green and blue eyes.

**'Con?'** Sides guessed.

**'I don't know...maybe we should-'** He cut off abruptly when the small femme between them suddenly broke free from his hold and dashed across the street.

"Lil come back!" Sides shouted and gave chase. Both of them ran straight through traffic without even looking to make sure that it was clear.

"Fraggit all to pit!" he cursed and tore off after them. Straight through more honking traffic and meandering squishies that he roughly pushed out of his way. By now he had lost sight of his twin and their femme which did not sit well with him at all.

He pushed his holorform body harder honing in on Sides spark and heading straight towards it. They were heading towards a small restaurant nearby for some odd reason.

He pushed passed a group of people blocking the establishment from his view. Sides was standing right in front of it but that was not what he honed in most intensely on.

His optics locked on their femme standing opposite of a slightly taller blonde haired femme. The two femmes were staring each other down, green optics locked on light blue optics.

"Miata," Lilah greeted. "It's been a while."

The other femme frowned and took a small step closer to her. "Lily? Is that...is that really you?" Miata or whatever her designation was came closer until the two were standing as close as they could possibly be without actually touching one another. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Lilah looked torn...angry and...hurt? She didn't reach out to touch the other femme. "Why? I thought that I made everything clear by leaving in the first place. Don't come after me!" She suddenly growled and took a defensive step back.

It only seemed to confuse this other femme. "We don't even know why you left!" She got angry as well and followed Lilah's retreat not allowing any more space to be put between them. "Estellise doesn't even know why you left! Jezz and Anna don't even know! And Demetri! Don't you think that he deserved to know that you left?!"

"No I don't. And we're not going to talk about any of that! Go back to Anchorage and don't come back here again. I'm not coming back so get over it."

**'What is going on here Sunny?'**

"GO BACK?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAD TO DO TO FIND YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE?! IT WAS PURE LUCK THAT I FOUND THAT VIDEO CLIP OF YOU FIGHTING THAT THING ON THE INTERNET!"

**'No idea Sides. Should we break it up?'**

"I SAID GO THE FRAG BACK TO ANCHORAGE MIATA! GO AWAY AND DON'T COME BACK!"

'Yeah let's do it before they do something violent.'

Both of them stepped forward and pulled Lilah away from the other femme. As soon as he was within touching distance of her he felt the pulse of a spark radiating from inside of her chest. 'It's another hybrid Sides.' Her spark beat was much more obvious than Lilah's was. He hadn't even been able to sense Lilah's until Ratchet had informed them of it yet he could easily hear this femme's spark beating.

And said hybrid suddenly looked up at him in fear and stepped back away from him. "Wha-what the hell Lily?! Why are you even with these...things?!"

He growled at her. "I am not a thing femme. And of course we are spending time together seeing as how we're courting her."

Light blue optics widened in shock shooting over at Lilah as her mouth fell open. "No...no way! Lily you aren't really thinking of-of mating one of these things!?"

"Don't call them things Miata! They aren't like them!" Lilah shrugged Sides off of her and stepped up beside him. "They're different from them!"

"No. No they aren't Lily! They're going to end up doing the same thing that...that they did! I don't want to see you get hurt like that again! Please come back with me!" The femme held a servo out for their femme with a pleading look on her face. "Please...they'll hurt you if you stay. Remember how they-"

"SHUT UP MIATA! JUST SHUT UP! I DON'T NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED BECAUSE I WAS THERE! AND I DON'T WANT TO EVEN THINK ABOUT IT FOR ANOTHER SECOND SO SHUT UP! SIDES AND SUNNY ARE NOT LIKE THAT AND I-I'M GOING TO SPARKBOND TO THEM EVEN IF YOU GUYS DON'T LIKE IT! AND YOU CAN TELL THE REST OF THEM THAT I SAID THAT TOO WHEN YOU GO BACK!" Lilah roared at her at the top of her lungs.

Miata flinched and stepped back away from her in shock and hurt. Her optics looked Lilah over for another few moments sadly before she nodded slightly. "Fine I'll go for now...but I am going to tell Estelle about this Lily. If she decides to come and get you then the rest of us are coming as well."

With that the blonde femme turned and walked away from them into a dark alleyway and out of sight.

She had barely even disappeared from sight when Lilah suddenly turned and stomped off in a different direction.

He looked at Sides before following her after communicating with his alt mode to follow after them. Something big was going down here if another hybrid was here looking for Lilah and he wasn't willing to just hand her over to anybot.

* * *

><p>(Lily's POV)<p>

How could this even be happening? That was all that she could think after Miata left. Even when she was ushered into Sunny's alt mode she couldn't think of anything else.

It had been so long since she had seen her old friend...the sister that she had trusted at one time. But that trust had died the day that she had seen her with her intended mate. That was why she couldn't even attempt to be happy to see her on the outside when deep down inside she...a small flash of happiness did break through the anger and rage permeating her spark.

But the rage had won over everything else. Because Miata had betrayed her by interfacing with Demetri. And...a part of her would always, always feel anger over that even if she somehow managed to forgive them. Right now however...she was still hurting too much to even think about it, about forgiveness or moving on from the emotional pain.

So she didn't say a word during the whole drive back to the base. She got out of Sunny's alt mode soundlessly once they were safely in the hangar and made her way towards the training rooms without saying a word to any of the gathered bots or humans.

They were following her. Sides and Sunny and she knew it, not just them either but Jazz and Ratchet as well as Optimus for some reason. It only made her rage grow even higher when they wouldn't take a hint and leave her alone.

Luckily the training room was empty when she got there so she wasted no time in rushing straight towards one of the heavier duty Auto bot practice dummies and proceeded to beat the ever loving slag out of it.

She struck it over and over again tearing metal clean off and jerking the reinforced chain that it was hanging from. All of her rage and frustration was channeled into every punch and kick and before she even realized it she had completely annihilated the first dummy. So she moved onto another and proceeded to snap that one straight off of its chains so that she could repeatedly kick the ever loving slag out of it, elbow drop it, let drop it...until it was dented so badly that it looked like it might snap in two.

But she didn't stop there. She breathed heavily through her nose and roundhouse kicked another dummy denting that before she spun around and brought her knee up and slammed it into the tough metal, hard enough to hurt her even.

Still couldn't stop! She kept punching until her gloves started ripping apart from catching on the torn metal. She heard somebot yelling at her telling her to stop but she didn't because there was so much anger in her, too much for her to even control if she tried. So she just didn't try. She just continued to wreak havoc on the equipment as she growled her anger out like a rabid animal.

Eventually her hands started to hurt both from repeatedly hitting hard metal without protective gloves on because she hadn't been smart enough to activate them, and because she was ripping her skin on the jagged metal. Energon was pouring down from the wounds but it only brought a familiar rush of relief with it. Being hurt because you wanted to be hurt always felt better...it always made her feel better.

But whoever grabbed her didn't seem to agree with her methods of venting at the cost of her own wellbeing.

"Sweetling stop it! You have damaged your servos on the metal practice dummies!" Ratchet's face was suddenly looming over her scowling down at her.

When she looked down at her hands they were bleeding. Bad. The skin was even hanging off of them in some places and torn in others. But...she didn't even care. She didn't care that they were hurting like a slagging glitch or that she had just freaked out again in front of Optimus and the twins.

"Who cares? They'll heal just fine by this time tomorrow." She grunted when he scanned her anyways.

Sides came up on Ratchet's side and looked into her eyes with cautious optics. "Sweets why are you so angry? Who exactly was that hybrid that we saw earlier?"

Ratchet looked up from his scan suddenly. "You saw another hybrid? Where?"

"Near the movie theater...Lil and Miata I think her name was got into a really heated argument. You should ask her the rest because Sunny and I don't understand what made her so mad."

"Mind your own business!" she snapped when the CMO looked back at her expectantly. Talking about it would only hurt her so she would keep it in. They didn't need to know anything, it wasn't their business! They weren't involved in any way that required an explanation so she wasn't going to give one.

"Actually it is my business if you cause such serious damage to yourself by flying into a rage over it," Ratchet growled.

"Just leave it. You can't make me talk and I don't feel obligated to tell you anything," she bit out through gritted teeth. Her spark pulsed painfully...she knew that she was being a glitch but...there was so much more that they had no idea about. So much that she never told anybot ever.

All of it she didn't know if she was ready to talk about at all yet. Maybe with the twins but...would they understand about the situation with Demetri? Or would they be angry that she had cared for another male at some point?

There was a sigh. "I need to take her to the med bay to mend these cuts...come Sideswipe and Sunstreaker."

She felt herself being carried from the training room passed a worried looking Optimus and Jazz. It barely even registered to her really because her mind was fading into a pain filled daze.

Because this was one of those moments that your past came and slapped you in the face...and you either wanted to run from it or fight it until it ceased to exist. And since you technically couldn't do that latter all that was left was to run from it. But she couldn't do that because that would mean that she would have to run from Sides and Sunny and she wouldn't do that.

So what could she do? If Estellise brought the others here to take her back...could she take a side and fight against others that she trusted? She couldn't...fight either side seriously and she knew that. Both had done a lot for her that could not be contested, and...she would never side against her loves. But could she side with them against her old...family? Could that word even be used to describe what they used to be?

Jezz, Anna, and Miata were like older sisters...

Demetri had been her lover and intended mate. She had truly loved him...

And Estellise...well Estellise had wanted to be the mother of the group but...she had always seen her as another older sister. That had made things difficult between the two of them.

But were they family? Real family? Had they accepted her for all of her flaws and choices? The answer to that was yes and no.

They accepted her personality, her powers, her temperament... But they had not accepted her choice to bond to Moondancer even if it had happened before she had really known them. So...

They weren't really family no matter how much she cared for them.

But were the bots? No. They weren't true family either because they didn't know everything about her. Yes they were close and all of them were near and dear to her spark but...she still had secrets that she was afraid to speak of.

The twins were her only anchors really. Even if they didn't know everything about her she trusted them implicitly and she didn't even know why. There were secrets between the three of them that had yet to be shared she knew that. But it was like her spark couldn't not trust them.

So why was she so scared that they wouldn't understand everything?

As she was laid down and tended to in the med bay again she couldn't help but to look around at the mechs situated around the room. She wanted to tell them just to get everything off of her chest... But she also didn't want to because she was scared that they wouldn't understand.

But if Estellise came...they would find out regardless of anything she did. Reality would be roughly slammed into their faces with all the force of gravity slamming down on them when they breached orbit. And she didn't know how to stop it if it did happen...

And that scared her.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! I know I threw out perfectly good lovey dovey time cause I'm evil lol! The other hybrids are going to be making an appearance soon I'm just debating on whether or not I want Lilah to tell the bots more about her past with the exclusion of her deepest darkest secret. That part will be coming soon enough though. Please Read, review, favorite, follow etc...<p> 


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

So I wanted to clarify something that I was thinking that you guys might be a little confused about and that is how long Shockwave has been on earth for. In G1 I think he had been on earth since dinosaurs were still alive and that was why the dinobots scanned dinos as their alt modes. Weird huh? Don't quote me on that because it could be a later gen. Anyways he's been there for a long time. I DO NOT OWN TF!

* * *

><p>They were worried about her; she didn't need special powers to tell her that. Not when Sides had been sitting propped against the door from their room to hers since Ratchet had released her from the med bay last night. For the last few breems or so she could hear him talking softly to her from behind the strong metal doors.<p>

But she didn't open them. She was angry and embarrassed about her little freak out...which hadn't been so little. In fact she was sure that Ironhide would have to rebuild the entire training room again because she had destroyed the training dummies again.

A part of her did feel bad about all of that. For causing them all so much slagging trouble. But after seeing Miata and being forced to think about things that she didn't want to think about she had just not been able to help herself. And it was better than some of the things that she had done when she was angry and hurting.

It just hurt so much for Miata to sit there and mention Demetri to her...like that would make her come back! And after she had interfaced with him behind her back! What kind of friend...no what kind of glitch did something like that? And why couldn't she just hate her for it? Why couldn't she feel more than hurt and betrayal in her spark?

Even when she had called Sides and Sunny things! Who the pit did she think she was to call her intended mates things?! If they were things then what were they?! A bunch of fragging fragged up science experiments that killed their birth mothers! And she wanted to call her mechs things?!

She had to stop before she got too angry and started destroying her room.

She sighed and lifted her head to stare at the door where Sides' voice was still lilting out from behind. What would she even do without him? Without them? She had gone from being terrified of being touched, of being close to somebot, to needing it and being okay with it. All thanks to them.

Sure she wasn't going to just walk up to a random bot and say 'hey touch me please', but she could get used to it over time as she had done with the other bots.

And here she was keeping secrets from them...and it was killing her on the inside. But she was terrified that they would not accept or understand what she had with Demetri in the past. How could she just walk up to them and say, 'the reason I was so pissed at that other hybrid was because she fragged my intended spark mate?' Yeah that would go over real well.

But if the others came they would find out anyways. Pit Demetri would probably try to win her back when she was pretty fragging sure that he had probably been fragging Miata since she had left. For all of his good traits he was spoiled, and self-centered, among other things.

Should...should she tell them just in case? There were other things that she would never say but...could she tell them this?

The answer was yes. She had to or else it could cause complications later in their relationship if the others did show up. They had to know where she stood now and it was not with a past intended. A mech that had broken her spark because she wouldn't put out.

She swung her legs over the side of her bed and hopped down to walk to the door. The talking on the other side abruptly cut off an astrosecond before it slid open.

Sides was right there when it did, smiling softly down at her and offering her a servo to hop onto. "You okay sweetspark?"

She smiled softly, strained, and clambered onto the offered servo so that he could carry her into the room where Sunny was sitting painting on a canvas near their berth. The gold mech looked up at her catching her optics as he sat his paintbrush down on the easel. "Babe, are you okay?" he asked gruffly.

"Yeah...I was just angry at her yesterday and I don't handle my anger well." She explained in a quiet voice. "I actually wanted to talk to you about why we argued yesterday."

"Well that saves us the trouble of asking you doesn't it? Cause I swear Sunny was about five astroseconds from breaking your doors down and making you talk," Sides joked.

"He would do that..." She laughed weakly. The joints in Sides' servos were so much more interesting to her then having to look up at the two of them when she was so afraid of how they would react. Would...would they even hear her out after she...

"Just talk babe. No judgments on our part as long as you just tell us what is going on."

Her optics slid up slowly meeting Sunny's briefly before drifting back down. She nodded. "Ok well Miata and I used to be liked sisters growing up in the labs. We were closer in age than the others with her being roughly a vorn older than me. For that reason she always tried to look out for me, and I for her both in the labs and after escaping. I thought that I could always trust her you know?"

"After we broke out we all stayed together while moving from place to place. But it wasn't so bad because we had each other; I had her and the twins Jezz and Anna. I...I also had Estellise and Demetri but my relationships with them were different."

"Different how?" There was an intensity to the words issued from Sunny's vocalizer. If she was looking at him she could imagine the dark seeking look on his face and in his optics.

So she just didn't look at him. "Well Estelle was like the mother of the group to the others...besides me. That sometimes put us at odds with one another because I had bonded to Moondancer as my mother. None of them were particularly happy that I had done that even though I had done it before I had really known them. Estelle blamed me for it more than the others though."

"And Demetri...well he was..." She had to just get it out! Just get it out and done with and you never have to worry about what they think again! But her throat was closing up and she was struggling desperately to just get the words out!

A soft caress on her back from Sides made her relax slightly. It didn't make it easier for her to speak per se, but she was comforted enough to manage. "He and I were intended mates."

Twin vents hitched with matching growls of. "MATE?!"

"Relax. I said were as in past tense." Her spark pulsed painfully in her chest when the atmosphere of the room suddenly got heavy. "We're nothing now and we never will be. Even if they come here looking for me I won't take him back."

The memory of seeing him atop Miata while the blonde femme that she had considered blood thrashed and moaned suddenly made her cringe. The sting of betrayal was forever sharp and piercing to her damaged spark. Would she never get over it?

Her eyes suddenly started burning with tears that she hastily wiped away. "I...I'm angry at her and at him. They...I caught the two of them together shortly before the actual spark bonding was to take place. That's why I was so pissed off when I saw her again!" Her voice rose as anger and betrayal consumed her spark.

She jumped off of Sides' servo and paced atop of their berth. "I want to hate those two so badly! Just because I wouldn't put out he had to go and find somebot that would? He acts more like a horny human male than anybot I've ever known!"

Her core temperature started rising as she growled and paced like an animal over the hard metal surface. "And to think that he fragged her when she was like a sister to me! And she had the fragging balls to bring him up in my face!? Is she out of her goddamn mind?!"

Both mechs just watched her pace without commenting.

And she was thankful for that because she really needed to just get all of it off of her chest. "I saved her life so many times! I saved his aft so many times and this is how they fragging repay that?! How stupid could I have been to not see it before? They were always close especially after I returned from trips with the twins! I bet they were fragging like animals when I was gone even back then!"

"And she has the slagging balls to say that I should have said something to him before I left!? She's lucky that I didn't become violent cause I was soooo tempted when she said that! No goddamn contest either between the two of us! I'd fragging destroy her in a second!"

"Babe you need to calm down, your spark is racing and it's causing you to heat up."

But she ignored Sunny and continued pacing. "Then she has the fragging guts to call you two things! Is she fucking serious? If you two are things what does that make us? We're fucking constructs created in a fragging secret lab! No better than fragging lab rats! And she calls you two things!?" Her voice rose into a yell as she lost her grip on her temper. Again.

"I could have fragging beat her face in for saying slag like that to you! How dare she sit there and judge me and my choices when she fragged my soon-to-be mate behind my back?! Who the fuck does she think she is?! I would have been happy to see Anna or Jezz! But her?! Argh! I wanted to cuss her out about how much of a back stabbing glitch she is!"

"Burstimpact would have fragging stomped her to death if I hadn't saved her! And she repays me by fragging him?! What the pit kind of fragged up glitch head is she?!"

She paced while looking down at her feet spewing death threats that she knew she wouldn't actually carry out. No she was mad at the two of them but she could never kill them. She suddenly walked into a firm metal surface and nearly went stumbling onto her aft. Another of Sides' servos caught her before she could fall however.

When she looked up at him he was staring at her in concern. "Calm down sweetspark before you start overheating."

Overheating was the least of her concerns right now. "Sides she fragged him! They both betrayed me and you're telling me to calm down?!" Her core temperature was skyrocketing but she just didn't care anymore. She could feel Energon tears leaking down her cheeks but she didn't care about that anymore either. Nor did she care to try and fight it either.

All she could think about was seeing them together, Miata standing in front of her yesterday like she had done nothing wrong, her calling Sides and Sunny things! Over and over again it kept running through her head! Her spark was racing sending superheated electrical currents through her circuits and veins, sending too much power to her dense organs. It was actually starting to hurt too.

But compared to the pain in her spark it was nothing.

"You aren't mad about him are you?" she suddenly choked out when they said nothing about anything that she had said.

Sides optics widened in surprise. "What?! No! Sweetspark we aren't angry that you had another male...well we aren't happy about it but seeing as how you're ours now there's nothing to really be done about it right? You aren't his anymore and you never will be regardless." He started gently caressing her back and arms with his digits to calm her.

"He sounds like a dirty afthole anyways," Sunny grunted. "He cheated on you and broke your spark so we hate him. Not that we hate him for handing you over to us by being a dumbaft. But we are thankful that we found you when you were unbonded."

"That doesn't mean that when we see him, IF we see him that we won't beat his face in for hurting you. If Optimus lets us anyways since he's a hybrid," Sides muttered darkly.

She bit back a sob and leaned forward with her arms outstretched for him. He leaned his helm down and pressed his face against hers gently. "Promise me you won't do something like that to me!" A sob tore through her gritted teeth into the otherwise silent room.

"We promise," they murmured simultaneously.

She leaned further into the warm metal plating with a loud whimper, gasping sobs shaking her frame. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop crying and she hated herself for that fact. For being so damn weak that she was breaking down again in front of them.

The tears wouldn't stop falling and within moments she had stopped trying. Her spark was just so distressed and pained that her walls couldn't hold it all back anymore. "I don't want those two to come here again!" she sobbed.

"If they do he won't touch you I promise. Sunny and I won't let him sweets."

"I'll kill him!" she hiccupped sounding like a newborn sparkling probably. And she probably looked like one too curled up against Sides' face plates crying like a baby.

"We'll kill him...if you want us to," Sunny offered. If she was looking at him she would probably see him grinning darkly at the thought of killing her ex intended.

She didn't give him an answer because she was too worked up to. Digits started working down her back again easing out as much of the tension as they could. Her body relaxed into it slowly at first...the heat gradually leaking out of her bit by bit as she calmed down.

She had been really close to overheating and taxing her spark and she hadn't even cared enough to do anything about it. Nor had she realized how very close she really was. Even now her mouth was wide open so that she could cycle in big breaths of cool air to both exhale heat and cool her insides.

The tears streaking down her face were now super warm against her now clammy cheeks. She wiped them away on her sleeves and curled into the gentle touches that Sides was giving her.

"I love you Sides," she mumbled quietly.

The caresses faltered.

"And Sunny too. I didn't tell you that before right? I love you guys."

The feather light touches resumed as he purred beneath her. "No you haven't. But that's ok sweets better late than never...even if it really isn't that late seeing as how we're only been together for an earth month."

Her eyelids suddenly got heavy and sagged. The world around her seemed to fade into a fog as they slid closed. The last thing she heard was a faint murmur that she couldn't distinguish before she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

They watched her recharge until they too fell into recharge around nine PM. When he came back online at seven AM she was still soundly in recharge between the two of them on the berth. Sides was curled around her on his side, and she was curled up on her side facing his chassis.

The events of yesterday plagued his processor and spark making him angry and volatile. He had never been unfaithful because he had never had a mate or a femme that he wanted as a mate. But he had always promised that when he found one he would treat her like she was so much more than a frag buddy because she was.

And here he was hearing that her previous romantic partner had been unfaithful, maybe even multiple times, behind her back. It pissed him the slag off just hearing it!

You should be faithful to your intended and to your mate! Cheating was not acceptable in a situation like the one that she had been in, or the one that they were now in. If you loved your femme you let her know it, you didn't go around flirting or facing other femmes!

No wonder she had made them promise her that they wouldn't cheat before she had even accepted their proposal. At first he had thought that it was an earth custom or something silly, but if he had known back then what he knew now he would have reassured her more seriously. Poor thing probably had more trust issues, or almost as many as he and Sides used to have.

Thanks to the twin bond Sides must have felt his already rolling emotions even in his recharge because his optics onlined dimly. "Thinking about offlining somebot Sunny? Don't do it without me cause I'm just as pissed off about the whole thing as you are."

He grunted in response before sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the berth and getting off of it. He walked over to the canvas he had been working on yesterday and sat down on his stool to look it over.

For some reason the need to paint her had overcome him last cycle so he had made use of one of his rapidly diminishing supply of canvases to paint her. He just didn't know if the picture of her being held against Sides' chest on the Ferris wheel at the fair was doing her justice.

The soft glow of lights reflected off of her pale skin and dark red hair. The look on her face was one of nervousness and anxiousness. Her tiny servos were fisted in Sides' red shirt and his twin was staring down at her warmly.

"What do you think Sides? Enough emotion?"

Sides grunted and hopped off the berth to come and stand behind his shoulder. "Hmmm damn I look good in this picture Sunny...and so does Lil. I think the light reflecting off of Lil makes her look beautiful and it really shows how much attention you pay to her details."

He cocked his helm to the side cautiously. "Accurate expression?"

"Yeah. It looks good bro like it always does. Don't worry Lil will love it." His twin patted his shoulder before returning to the berth to pick up the still recharging femme. He carried her back over cradled in his servos against his chassis. "Are you gonna give it to her or something?"

He grunted. "Don't know..." His paintings were worth a lot of money on Cybertron because he was a very well-known artist. Lots of femmes and mechs would kill to be painted by him and they paid handsomely for his time. And here he was nervous about giving her a painting of her that he had done. Well that was life...in anything other than fighting he was awkward and either introverted or downright angry.

"Do you...do you really think she'll like it?"

"Definitely. But you can ask her if you'd like since I think she's waking up now."

As soon as his twin's words registered he was on his pedes draping a tarp over the painting that he had done. "It's not finished yet!" He growled defensively when Sides raised an optic ridge at him.

Sides grinned and opened his mouth to protest when a soft groan drew their attention down to the femme encased in his servos. Lilah sat up yawning and rubbing her optics wearily. She blinked up at him and Sides when she caught sight of them. "Morning."

"Morning babe. Did you have a good recharge?" She should have...she charged like the dead last night.

She stretched and rolled her neck to pop the joints. "Yeah I think so. I didn't have any nightmares...then again I didn't sleep the night before since I was so pissed off at Miata so I was catching up on a missed night."

Sides frowned at her at the same time that he did. "What did we tell you about adequate recharge sweets?"

Lilah rolled her optics at him. "Well you said that recharge was needed to keep me beautiful, and Sunny said that I needed to recharge so that he could recharge to keep himself beautiful."

He shot her a disgruntled look making his twin laugh. "Well it's true! I do need my beauty recharge babe! You think I'm going to keep this healthy finish on lack of recharge?"

She snorted. "Sunny according to you it's impossible for you to look bad even if you tried."

He opened his mouth to protest but he suddenly remembered that he had said that. So he just grunted again and changed the subject. "So what's on the agenda for today babe?"

She pursed her lips and cupped her chin thoughtfully. "Well I was going to go and see Wheeljack this morning since I have today off from marksman training. He needed my help with something and he said that there was only a forty percent chance that I would get blown up so I agreed to it."

Sides choked and spluttered. "W-what?! No way are you helping Jackie with his experiments! We want you to live!"

"But Sides...I promised!"

"I agree with Sides on this one babe... Not happening! Jackie can blow himself up like he always does but he is not blowing you up."

He narrowed his optics at her when she turned to pout at him. "No." He snipped derisively.

"Can I at least go see him if I stay far away from whatever he's working on?"

"No. I don't even want you in the same room as him when he's working."

"Please Sunny? I just want to see! He said that I would like whatever he was working on a lot! And it'll make me feel better after the fits that I had yesterday and the day before."

She stared at him with wide optics. He stared back through narrowed ones of his own. She whined. He grunted. She suddenly scowled. He scowled right back. She turned to Sides and stuck her lower lip out.

Sides caved almost immediately. "Only if you stay on my shoulder and away from Jackie."

He smacked his brother over the back of the helm angrily. "What the slag Sides?! I just said no! How dare you undermine my authority!?"

Sides yelped and glared at him. "Hey! As long as she stays on my shoulder and away from Jackie it should be safe right?"

He ground his denta together and decided to remind Sides about the time that Jackie accidentally released a cloud of acidic fumes that ate away at any organic lifeforms. Thankfully there were no organic life forms on Cybertron so they had been safe. The point is what if Jackie did something that stupid when she was in the room?

He also decided to replay instances where the scientist had blown up entire wings of their previous bases...

Sides frowned. "Maybe I was a little overzealous in-"

"No take backs!" Lilah rushed to get out.

Both of them frowned at her. "Fine but if he brings out chemicals or explosives we're out that door," he told her.

"Deal." Sides put her down so that she could make her way into her room to dress and do her femme things.

While she was doing that he decided to com Wheeljack and see what kind of experiment he had been working on. **'Jackie why did you ask for Lilah's help today?'**

It took a moment for the scientist to respond.** 'Oh I wanted to show her two things. First a portable subspace that she can carry necessary things in. And second...is a surprise.'**

**'A surprise? Will it blow her up or injure her in any way?'**

A pause. **'It won't blow up...nor will it injure her if I got the programming right.'**

Real comforting. **'If it hurts her I will kill you.'** He threatened before he cut the com link off. Turning to Sides he scowled and shrugged. "Jackie said something about a portable subspace...and something else that's supposed to be a surprise. Dunno what it is but he said that as long as he got the programming right it shouldn't kill her or anything. Sooo don't let her out of your sight or near Jackie."

"Got it," Sides gave him the thumbs up before they both fell silent.

Lilah finally came back showered, and dressed in a dark green long sleeved shirt with little white skulls on it, dark jeans and black ankle boots roughly half a human hour later. "Ready?"

"Ready."

Sides picked her up and situated her on his shoulder before they left the room and traversed the corridors to Wheeljack's quarters. The whole way he kept glancing nervously at her from the corner of his optics. She was sitting quietly on his twin's shoulder looking reserved.

Well he guessed she was still somber because of her break down yesterday. So hopefully whatever Jackie had to show her would be safe, and would make her happy.

They passed by Jazz in the hallway outside of Wheeljack's door and waved to him as they buzzed to let the scientist know that they were there. The door opened almost immediately revealing Wheeljack with a wide grin on his face.

"Come in Lilah!" The dark mech gestured them to come into his quarters by stepping aside.

They did so warily glancing around the room for anything that might suddenly go off. When they were sure that there was nothing ticking or whirring dangerously they both stepped fully into the room.

Wheeljack rushed passed them to his work table and waved them over. "I just finished testing this last night! Here take a look!" He held up a silver pendant shaped like the Auto bot insignia. "It's a portable subspace! Here let me show you!" He held it out to Lilah and grinned at her. "Focus your electromagnetic pulse into it!"

Lilah shrugged and grabbed the small necklace in her servo. "Just channel energy into it?" Wheeljack nodded eagerly so she took it fully into her servo and focused a small burst of energy into it.

Whatever he and his brother had been expecting to happen was definitely not what happened. Because the damn subspace opened up and a cybercat suddenly shot out from the light blue beam of light that emitted from a small port on the pendant.

"HOLY SLAG!?" Lilah exclaimed as she was pinned underneath the fragging silver cybercat.

He raised his servo to grab it and crush it but Wheeljack suddenly stood up and started waving his arms around in a panic. "NO! Bad cybercat! Don't attack your new master!" He snatched the thing from them before they could smash it and hooked a cable into the back of its helm. "Let me see here...input master identification...protective protocols...battle systems...and there! It should work now!"

"That's what you said before the fragging thing almost killed her!" he growled out eyeing the damn cybercat warily. "And why would you even put it into a subspace like that? Is that even inside of protocols?"

Wheeljack shrugged and handed the now much more subdued cybercat back over. "Dunno. But I was lucky that I found the genetic coding for these guys before I left Cybertron huh?"

"Sure." Still eyeing the thing warily...it was cuddling Lilah now but Wheeljack's inventions were always faulty. She did seem quite taken with the silver cybercat with bright expressive purple optics. A weird color for a cybercat.

The damn thing was purring up a storm where it was perched in Sides' servo cuddling Lilah. Why had he even made this damn thing for her? And better yet how had he made a frame and spark for it? No he really didn't want to know how...he had probably been carrying stray sparks in stasis tanks or something. If that was the case it was a simple matter to transfer a cybercat's spark into a new frame.

Sides was eyeing the thing warily too. "Why did you umm make her a cybercat Jackie?"

Wheeljack faltered suddenly. "Hmmm that's a good question. Ummm to protect her when you two aren't present?" It came out as more of a question then anything.

"Really? Because it didn't just try and kill her a moment ago," he grumbled quietly.

"Technicalities!" Wheeljack waved it off and grinned down at her. "So how do you like it Lilah? I haven't designated her yet because I wanted to let you do it seeing as how she's yours now."

"She?" Red pushed the cybercat away slightly so that she was able to look at Jackie fully.

"Yup she. Designate her!"

"Ok. Umm lemme see here...Gem? No too cliché...ummm how about Aednat! It means little fire!" She smiled softly at the cybercat purring on her lap before patting its helm firmly. "How does that sound Aednat? Are you going to be my wing girl when I need to kick aft?"

Aednat whirred low in her chassis and curled her long tail around herself.

"Awww this made my day Jackie! I was worried that I was going to be pissed off all day!"

"You're welcome Lilah. Oh I need to show you something real quick with the subspace!" Jackie took the pendant from her and showed her the back side where there was a small button. "If you press this button while pumping energy into the subspace it will draw any weapon or item that you hold up to the port on the front in. If you need to take something out just pump energy into it and this here..." Next to the first button was several more buttons of varying colors from red, to yellow, and even a benign brown. "I designed it to prioritize the items contained within so...pressing the red button and pumping energy into it will draw a weapon. You can only store one gun and one melee weapon in it since the storage space isn't the largest since it's a compact subspace."

"Ok."

"So you press a button, red for weapons, orange for secondary weapons or various other armaments, or yellow for something like survival equipment! There's a touch screen here that will let you choose whatever you want from each! And the brown button could be anything from rations to anything that you want to bring along with you. This touch screen here will alert you when each section is filled to the max, when you reach the top out point you can't put anything else in."

"So why did Aednat suddenly jump out when I didn't push any button then? Did you set it up so that if there was only one thing in the subspace it would come out as soon as I tapped into it?"

Jackie grinned. "Yup just in case you used everything else up and needed a weapon fast! I recommend leaving one in there at all times."

"Will do...and it won't suddenly blow me up?"

"No I tested it and it only blew up forty percent of the time like I said."

He scowled and muttered under his breath. "Take that thing away from her when we leave Sides...both of them."

Sides laughed over the bond.

"Well if that's all then we're gonna get going now Wheeljack." Before he ended up blowing one of them up in a storm of fire and destruction...and by that he meant Lilah.

"Hmm? Oh yes that's a good idea because I need to get to work on my Energon converter and it has a high blow up ratio so far. Don't want the little femme to be hurt in the process!"

Right... "See ya Jackie. Come on Sides let's get going." He turned and led his brother out of the mad inventor's quarter, sighing in relief when the doors slid shut behind them. His optics drifted down to their femme and her new cybercat warily. For the next few cycles he was going to be keeping both optics on the fragging thing in case Jackie wired it wrong or something.

But for now he let it be because she did seem more content than she had earlier. Too bad it did nothing to make him more at ease about the whole mess. He just hoped that this male came to the base so that he could stomp him into mush...

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

"Sides do I feed Aedant Energon like you guys drink?"

The red front-liner looked up from the game that he was playing when his femme spoke to him. "Huh? Yeah you just give her a cube of Energon a day and she'll be good." He went back to his game going all Yoda on a bunch of zombies on Dead Rising three with the light saber that you could make from a flashlight and gems.

"Do you think she's hungry yet?"

"If Jackie fueled her before you got her then not yet. She'll tell you when she's hungry sweets trust me." He spun around and cleaved a bunch of zombies in half before running like a bat out of hell for where the marker arrow was pointing. Almost out of weapons! On the way he picked up a protestor sign and started poking the hordes of zombies back with it snickering to himself when they tripped and fell on themselves. Stupid zombies.

"Hmmmm she looks tired," Lilah mused quietly as she crawled over the bed to sit and hopped down so that she could sit on his leg and watch him play.

"Let her recharge then sweetspark."

Aww slag he broke his sign! "No stay back you possessed slagstains! Where's a weapon to use?!" His character wildly started racing around on the screen as he jammed the joysticks of the larger controller in his servos.

"Use the trashcan," Lil suggested.

He ran over to it and picked it up before throwing it and knocking over a large group of zombies. "See ya later slaggers!" He jammed the joystick forward making his character race through the fallen group and into another section of the map. While he was waiting for the loading screen to pass he gently rubbed his pointer digit up her back.

She seemed to ignore his touch at first. "Hey Sides?"

"Hmm?"

"You promise that you aren't mad about what I told you last night?"

His touches stilled. Was she still hung over about that? Well that sounded really insensitive of him to put like that...of course she was. Sparkbreaks were hard to get over and that he knew all too well. There must still be a lot of pain and anger residing in her spark from the memories. "I promised you didn't I? And I wouldn't promise if I didn't mean it sweetspark. How can I be angry at you when the slagger never deserved you in the first place?"

She shrugged and looked up at him meekly. "Sides I'm not as perfect as you seem to think. Maybe...I wasn't good enough for him...or for you and Sunny."

"Wrong. He wasn't good enough for you and neither are Sunny and I really. But at least we won't cheat on you sweets."

Her servos started running over the expanse of his digits and the back side of his servo gently as she hummed some sort of protest. That was all it as though, a faint noise of protest and nothing else.

He relaxed under her touch forgetting about the game for a few brief moments to savor her soft skin running over his wires and plating. She had abandoned her gloves when they had returned to her quarters so he clearly felt the scars on her skin when her servos moved over him. It still felt good to him just having her touch him like this without restraint.

Too bad Sunny was on patrol right now and thus missing out on this. He grinned and sent images to his twin hoping to incite a response.

Within astroseconds he received a stiff.** 'Frag you.'**

He laughed and moved to cup his servos around her resulting in an indignant shout from her. "Sunny's getting all pissy that you're touching me."

"Why?" Lilah squeaked out from where he had her head pinned between two digits. She was scowling at him openly now.

"Cause you're not touching him."

"He's not here." She pointed out whilst squirming to get out from between his digits. "Sides cut it out! Let me go so that I can study some more of the material that Ratchet left for me."

"Nope no studying. How about you play this game with me?"

She eyed the screen dubiously. "Oh you mean the game that you just got killed in because you were too busy tormenting me?"

He panicked and turned back to the screen which showed his character in the save station again. "WHAT?! NO MY COMBO SCORE!"

"Guess you should pay more attention from now on huh?" She snickered at him.

"Noooo my kill combos..."

"Well I'm gonna lay down and go to bed Sides night!"

"What?! Sweetspark don't leave me hanging here!" he protested pitifully.

"Night Sides!" She just turned over in her bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.

**'Looks like she left you hanging Sides...'** Sunny snickered.

**'Frag you!'** he growled before turning back to his game. But for some reason he couldn't help but to wonder why she had said that she wasn't good enough for them...? And no matter how much he thought about it he couldn't figure it out.

He paused in playing his game and eyed her from the corner of her optics. Not everything was all right with her yet and he had yet to get into the deepest part of her secrets. At this point he was almost afraid of what else she had been put through. Hopefully she would tell them...one day soon. When the pain was not so consuming.

They would wait...him and Sunny, for that day to come.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! This is definitely not the last of the drama between Lilah and her past companions! Lots of surprises in store for later! See ya next time!<p> 


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

So I got an awesome review last chapter from Sorana3! It was the only review but it was such a mood lifter that I was like hey I really want to write another chapter because I have readers like her! So here I am getting psyched up to do another one! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>"I can't believe that fragging slaghead had the nerve to give you a cybercat! Not just a cybercat but a cybercat with mini leviathan cannons built into the chassis! What was he even thinking?! And the battle systems are set on overdrive! Now I have to waste my time fixing it!"<p>

She smirked at the CMO who was bent over working on Aednat after said cybercat had gone on a rampage earlier when Ironhide had scolded her rather loudly during training. This resulted in her little...not so little companion suddenly pulling out twin sets of cannons and shooting the bot in the aft.

Despite all of the humor that could be found in the situation, she was worried that Aednat would start causing more trouble if she wasn't tweaked a bit. And Sides and Sunny, regardless of how funny they would think it was to see Ironhide getting shot in the aft, would want Aednat fixed so that she didn't get hurt by her kitty going into another rampage.

So she was sitting in the med bay waiting for Ratchet to fix her while she watched Ironhide sitting in the corner with his legs pulled up in the air and a quick patch job on his aft. She suddenly burst into laughter again both because of the large metal scrap on his aft, and the way that he was pouting/scowling at Aednat and her.

There was a snort from Ironhide. "I'll remember this next time you have training littlespark."

She instantly sobered at the nickname. "Littlespark? What's up with the new nickname Hidey?"

He growled at her and muttered something about stupid younglings getting his aft shot with their idiocy and turned his helm away from her.

She just shrugged and went back to kicking her legs back and forth to amuse herself while Ratchet worked. The twins had been absent for a while, probably getting into some sort of trouble with Prowl or something. Probably in the brig...she should go and check there after she left here.

Ratchet removed his cable from Aednat's helm and rebooted her. "All right her programming should be less touchy now."

Aednat perked up from her slumped position and onlined her bright purple optics. Her helm swiveled around until her optics landed on her and she mewled and jumped off of the table to race over to her. She started nuzzling her chest and legs and purring.

"Aww Aednat you're so cute! Who's a good girl that shot Ironhide's butt huh? You are! That's right!" She laughed and reached up to pat her kitty's helm. Aednat was actually roughly the size of a tiger so she was pretty big compared to her. But she was fragging adorable as slag since she acted like a needy little kitten following her around all of the time.

It seemed to irritate the twins somewhat that her little tag along wouldn't not tag along. She was sure that they would get used to her though sooner or later. It had only been a few days since she had got her after all and those two seemed slow to warm up, well in Sunny's case. Sides didn't mind Aednat as much as his brother; he even tried playing with her sometimes. The only reason that he was somewhat irritated at her right now is because Aednat had bitten his servo yesterday and she had to do a field patch on it because he didn't want to go to Ratchet.

And Sunny was angry at her because she had shredded one of his canvases with her claws. A canvas that he had been working on... So it was not a good idea to leave Sunny alone with her new kitty since she was sure that he might stomp on her to relieve his growing irritation.

"Well come on Aedy! Let's go and find Sides and Sunny okay?" She hopped off of her seat and waved to Ratchet. "See ya later Ratchy! Bye Hide!" Before she left the room and headed towards the brig with Aednat trotting along beside her. "Those two spend almost every day down there since Prowl built that thing."

Aednat growled as if to respond to her.

"Sometimes it gets lonely when they have to spend all day down there... I need them to push the bad thoughts away." Sighing she turned the corner and started down the stairs into the lower level where the brig was. All the while she kept thinking about how understanding the twins had been since she had told them of her old boyfriend. Neither of them had held it against her or even brought it up again since. Their treatment of her had not changed in any negative way either, in fact it had only gotten better. Since she had told them three days ago both of them had made an effort to be much more affectionate with her, always nuzzling or holding her close. She smiled just thinking about it.

Her thoughts had a tendency to become dark when they weren't around though. Aednat helped with them somewhat but there was only so much that her presence could do to help her. Memories were a powerful thing when mixed with pain and anguish especially. They could completely destroy you if you let them.

And her memories were riding on the edge sometimes. Every instance when she had been hurt and tortured growing up, every loss that she had suffered, the pain that she had felt at being betrayed. All of it seemed to just culminate when she was without her twins.

So she rarely spent any time without them. She stepped down the last of the stairs into the brig and walked over to a desk where Prowl was sitting.

The SIC pointed to the cell at the end without even looking up from his datapad. "They've been in there for approximately three joors; they should be getting out soon."

"Thanks Prowly." She waved at him before turning and stalking down the corridor towards the cell on the end. She peered in at the two idiots, Sides was sitting on the floor using his digits to draw imaginary pictures in the air, and Sunny was glaring death at him for doing it. "Wow twice in the last two days?"

Both of them stiffened when she spoke and Sides crawled over to the bars and laid down on his front on the dirty floor so that he could be optic level with her face. "Sweetspark did you come to spring us from the brig?" He reached a servo through the bars and brushed a digit down her cheek.

"Nope. Prowl wouldn't go for it Sides." Her fingers ghosted over his and she relished in the feel of his warm metal pressing against her soft yet firm skin. "What did you do to get thrown in here this time?"

Sides pouted. "We just painted a mural of Ratchet fragging himself with his wrench on the wall of the main hangar."

Her jaw dropped and she burst out laughing so hard that she fell onto her aft on the dirty floor. "OH WOW THAT-PLEASE TELL ME THAT YOU HAVE PICTURES! OH MY GOD THAT'S AS FUNNY AS AEDNAT SHOOTING IRONHIDE'S AFT PLATING OFF TODAY!"

"She what?" Sunny spluttered.

"She...she, Ironhide yelled at me because I-well what I did wasn't important!" She studiously expelled the part of the story where she had focused her pulse into the gun again which she had been instructed not to do. "Anyways he started yelling at me and Aednat flew into a rage and shot his aft plating off! Apparently she's pretty heavily armed! And now Hidey is in the med bay with his legs hanging up over his helm and a field patch on his aft!"

Her back met the ground as she lost it again. "You should've seen the look on his face while he was sitting there! He was pouting and glaring at Aednat while Ratchet redid her programming again! It was so hilarious especially since the field patch that Ratchet did was all bulky. Between you and me I think he did that on purpose so that he could take pictures of it for later."

Aednat batted at her head playfully with her claws retracted so as not to hurt her. She laughed and pushed the large paw-er kitty servo, yeah let's just go with paw, away from her head so that she could sit up. "Apparently she has leviathan cannons built into her chassis and she blasted Hide point blank with them. It was priceless...if only you weren't in the brig you would have been able to see it."

Sides pouted again and pushed his face plates up against the energy bars completely so that his mouth and nasal ridge were squeezing through the bars. "Can I link into Aednat's helm and look at it later?"

Aednat looked up from batting at her hair when her designation was mentioned. "Grrrwll."

"Maybe that's not such a good idea yeah? Just hack into the security cameras later on since I know that you two like to do that." She grinned at the startled looks she received from the two of them. Pointing at her head she tapped at her temple and smirked. "Sixth senses...sometimes I check in on you two to make sure that you're both behaving."

Sunny snorted. "Then I'm guessing you're always disappointed since Sides is always getting us thrown into the brig."

"Not really. The only reason that I haven't been thrown into the brig yet is because I'm smart enough to not get caught pulling pranks. So no judgments cause I'm not a good girl either."

Sides grinned. "Galloway," was all that he said.

"Still got that picture saved on your drive?"

"Yup."

"Send it to him with your special headline." She scooted closer to the bars and leaned her forehead against Sides' helm. Aednat curled up against her back boxing her in against her mech. Not that she was complaining.

Sides optics dimmed for a moment before an even larger grin spread across his mouth plates. "Sent it."

"Excellent." It got quiet after that while she sat there cuddling up against her alien robot boyfriend's face plates. She ran her hands down over his nasal ridge and smirked when he twitched like a bug had landed on him. Her hands kept moving down over his mouth plates from one side of his smirk to the other. "What does it feel like when I touch you like this?"

Sides made a small twittering sound of confusion. "Weird question sweets." His optics dimmed for a moment. "Well when you touch me with your bare skin it feels soft like...a feather passing over my armor but it's firm. When you have your gloves on it still feels soft but the leather catches onto my plates...they both feel really good."

Well then she'd have to make a note to touch them both more often. The cell door clicked suddenly causing Sides' helm to shoot up from the floor. She took the opportunity to press her lips against his mouth plates briefly.

She drew back and shot to her feet before he could do anything. Aednat jumped up suddenly as well and she took the chance to hop onto her cyberkitty's back and lightly kick her sides to get her to run. "Catch me if you can!" She teased before Aednat shot off as the doors were opening.

Behind her she heard Sides protest and the loud stomping of pedes chasing her. But Aednat was fast as a whip and she leapt up the stairs in astroseconds and tore off down another corridor. She clung onto her feline's back and turned to look at the two pursuing mechs behind her. Sides was grinning at her as he skated after her and Sunny was smirking minutely as well.

They passed by Jazz and Bluestreak in the hall. "Hi Jazz bear! Hi Bluey! Bye!" She waved at them as they shot passed.

"Get out of the way fraggers!" Sunny snarled, followed by the sound of a loud clanging noise. Probably from him pushing Blue or Jazz.

"No pushing Sunny!" She turned to scold him over her shoulder.

"Then he should have gotten out of my way!" Sunny growled out while diving for her. His body crashed into the floor when Aednat jumped out of the way at the last second and he started bellowing that Aednat had made him scratch his paint.

A loud tinkering laugh forced its way from her lips when he turned over and patted at his chipped chassis like one would a newborn sparkling who was crying. She could even imagine him talking to it and reassuring it that everything would be okay. Her laughter cut off suddenly when Sides lunged for her from her other side. She just barely managed to spur Aednat to move out of the way in time so that Sides went sprawling to the floor as well.

"Not fair sweets! No sensory powers allowed!" He protested after getting to his servos and knees.

"But I wasn't using it." She lied through a smirk. Right now she was seeing both of them in shades of silver and bright flashes of blue when they moved. Their normal colors were nonexistent; they were just blackness dispersed through the silver of their circuitry and frames. Flashes of blue would light their frames up whenever they went to move effectively making them a multicolored kaleidoscope.

"Liar. You so were! I can see it in your optics! Whenever you use it they light up."

She pouted and held her hands up in surrender as she deactivated her sensory ability. "Ok, ok I give!" She slid off of Aednat's back and walked over to a still pouting Sunny. "Sorry about the paint Sunny. Do you want me to help you fix it?"

His optics shot to her and narrowed. "Yes you better help me fix it. I can't walk around looking like this!"

"Big baby...it's just a tiny scratch!"

Sunny suddenly plucked her off of the floor and carried her in the direction of their quarters. "A scratch on my perfect finish! I have to look flawless babe."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine I'll help fix it. But afterwards I want to have a movie night with the other bots."

He growled but didn't protest.

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

"Benchwarmers!" Lilah cheered as she set the DVD player up in the rec room and started the intro. He and Sides were sitting on the couch next to Jazz and Prowl, Bluestreak was sitting next to Sides pedes, Ratchet was sitting on Sides' other side, and Optimus was sitting next to Arcee on one of the smaller couches. The only bot absent was Ironhide but that was probably because of his pride at being seen with a giant weld on his aft.

Lilah skipped back over and jumped up onto his lap so that she could snuggle back into his abdomen comfortably.

The first scene of the movie started up showing a brown haired male wearing an obnoxious yellow and black helmet, that strangely reminded him of Bee, riding a three wheeled bike down the street. The male reached for some sort of paper and threw it over his helm and it somehow landed on the roof of a human house.

He snorted while Sides just snickered.

_'Dang it!'_ The male whined loudly.

Another male behind him wearing a blue work suit and a strange hat watched the other male bemused._ 'Nice throw. It's all right I got a ladder I'll get it.'_

_'Actually just tell Mrs. Donnelly that her paper's on the roof and she can get it whenever she wants.'_

_'Oh that's good thinking Clark! I'll just have eighty year old Mrs. Donnelly climb on her roof to get her newspaper.'_

_'Kay cool! Thanks!'_ The yellowed helm wearing male went to ride away so that other male stopped him.

_'Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Clark I was kidding! You can't do that!'_

_'All right fine give her one of these!'_

_'This is yesterday's paper.'_

_'At least it's not on the roof.'_ The bike riding male argued while shoving his finger up his olfactory area.

_'Clark don't pick your nose in front of me please?'_ The blue male protested.

'I'm not picking I'm scratching!'

_'What are you scratching your brain?'_

_'Yeah cause it's huge!'_

Lilah laughed quietly and quoted the scenes quietly to herself. Sides laughed and plucked her from his lap so that he could use his own servos as a sort of couch for her so that she was leaning back against his chassis near his spark. At least his twin seemed to be enjoying the movie. It was kind of humorous.

A little while later they got to the part where they played baseball against the kids who had backdrafted in the other kids face while ha laid on the ground. One of the main characters had commented on something called steroids.

_'What are steroids?'_ Clark asked.

_'Something that makes your peepee smaller,'_ Richy answered him.

Clark suddenly had a look of divine realization on his face. _'There must be steroids in macaroni!'_ To which Richy just gave him a weird look.

Lilah and Sides busted out laughing as did most of the other bots besides himself, Prowl, and Optimus. Though he did snicker softly to himself. This was a pretty funny human movie. He reached out and snatched his femme back from his twin and positioned her comfortably in one of his servos. Jazz grinned at him and winked an optic at Lilah who was way too engrossed in the movie to even notice.

They sat there laughing their afts off at the scene where Howie had to leave his apartment to get the cookies his brother Richy had bought and ended up scaring the slag out of some girl scouts with a fake sword. Then there was the part where Clark got beaten up by a bunch of kids on the red and gray team for smashing in the windshield of their coach's car by tossing his bat.

Now there were at the part where the three main leads were practicing 'baseball' drills with some guy named Reggie Jackson.

_'Hot potato!'_ Reggie tossed the potato that he had just taken out of the oven to Gus, who passed it to Richy, who passed it to Clark, who just held it like an afthead.

_'Clark! Let it go!'_ Richy yelled at him.

Clark suddenly started flailing around the kitchen as the others gestured for him to throw the damn thing, and when he finally did the potato hit number seven in the head when he was mowing the lawn...which caused him to shave the family dog with the lawnmower.

The rest of the movie passed by in a blur, the midget man named Marcus made Sides and Jazz howl with laughter when he started chanting in some fake language while holding a peanut butter weapon. And the ending where Howie was seen eating sunblock under the table got a grimace from Ratchet and Prowl.

Soon the credits rolled across the screen causing Lilah to groan. "Aww it's over already? Who wants to watch stepbrothers?" She suggested with a grin.

"I have to go and do some work so I will have to sit this one out sweetling." Ratchet suddenly stood and patted her head gently before making his way out of the room.

"I have work as well...perhaps we can have another 'movie night' in a few days." Prowl got up and walked out.

Optimus too stood up and waved before he left the room as well. Arcee followed after saying that she needed recharge so she was going to her berth. That left Jazz, Bluestreak, Lilah, and him and Sides behind.

"I guess Stepbrothers can wait until later then..." She sighed before she suddenly perked up and grinned. "High grade?"

Sides and Jazz both grinned at her and nodded. "We've always got high grade sweetspark."

"Cool cause I'm gonna show you guys drinking games."

Why did he have the feeling that this was going to end very badly?

* * *

><p>Roughly a joor later he was the only one in the room that was still even remotely sober. Sides was gone, Jazz was gone, Bluestreak was way gone, and Lilah was chugging high grade like a fragging fiend so she was gone. Right now she and Sides were playing Jazz and Bluestreak in a game called beer pong where you have cups filled with alcoholic beverages, alien of human...and you have two teams on opposite ends of the table who take turns tossing balls into the cups. If a ball landed in a cupcube then the team whose side it was on had to drink it. And each team had several balls to throw each turn.

The way they were playing it was a little different because Lilah couldn't drink a full sized cube because it was larger than her, so they broke off each side into two separate parts. Lilah's part had smaller cups that were proportioned to her size, while the rest had cubes proportioned to their body masses as well. So it was Sides vs. Jazz, and Bluestreak vs. Lilah.

Most of the cubes were empty and off to the side of the table leaving few left over. So far Jazz was beating Sides, but Lilah was beating Bluestreak who looked like he was about to pass out any second. Just when he thought that the blue mech suddenly buckled and hit the floor with a loud clang.

"WOOOOOO! I FRAGGED YOU UP BLUEY!" Lilah suddenly leapt onto the table and started moonwalking across the surface. "I HATE LITTLE MICHAEL!" she suddenly yelled before flopping onto her aft.

Sides and Jazz snorted at her as they moved onto the last round. Both had one cube left and it was Jazz's turn to throw the ball and if he landed it he won.

The silver saboteur grinned and tossed his ball into the air. Every helm, save for Bluestreak's since he was out cold, looked up in time to see the ball land in Sides' last cube with a splash. "Wooooo I win! Nobot messes wit' da Jazz man! Tha' right!"

Sides pouted and downed his last cube before tossing it down on the table. "Hey Sunny you're supposed to be having fun not standing over there like a piece of junk!" His twin grinned at the scowl he received from him. "Ouch be still my beating spark for Sunny is mad at me once more! Oooh woe is me!"

Lilah giggled at him and stood on shaky pedes to skip to the end of the table where she proceeded to lower herself over the side and promptly let herself fall.

He lurched forward and caught her in his servo making her giggle. "Aww Sunny caught me! He's sooo much better then Di was!" she slurred and made kissy faces at him.

Grunting he stood up but did not place her on the floor for fear that she would do something remarkably stupid. As it stood Sides and Jazz were already doing some dance called the wobble or something, at least that was what he gathered from the music playing from Jazz's speakers. But he didn't care enough to watch them be idiots.

His own helm was somewhat fuzzy when he sat down on a couch in front of the TV. But he wasn't too far gone that he couldn't keep an optic on the femme crawling around in his servo who was ridiculously overcharged. "Hey Sunny? Suuuunnnnnyyyy?"

"What femme?" he murmured quietly.

"Where's Aednat?" Her optics shot around looking for her cybercat companion and when she didn't see her she started to panic. "OH NO! WHERE'S AEDNAT?! SHE WAS RIGHT THERE WHEN WE WERE WATCHING THE BENCHWARMERS! WHAT IF SHE GOT OUTSIDE AND CLIMBED A TREE?!"

He couldn't help it...he actually laughed. "Babe she's a cybercat she's not going to get stuck in a tree. And besides I put her back in your room a little while ago when you guys were playing beer pong. Err...high grade pong," he corrected himself at her dubious look.

"Oooooh...ok!" She suddenly went quiet and started drawing pictures in the air with her servos. "I got my hands in the toaster and they're about to get roasted again! And Sides is now the toaster so he's about to roast me again!"

"W-What?! What song is that?"

"Dunno but Sides could be rewired into a toaster so it could happen," Lilah shrugged and went back to singing. "Come on everybody let's get stupid! I'll put my hand in the oven and I'm about to get baked again!" For some reason she made a weird motion of bringing two of her digits to her mouth and making a weird puffing motion.

He had just sat back content to let her do what she wanted so long as she didn't stray from him when she suddenly lurched up ramrod straight. When he looked down he stiffened when he noticed that her eyes were glowing again. "Babe?" Maybe the high grade was messing with her in ways that were not so good.

Sides came over when he caught onto his worry draping himself over the back of the couch and watching her with super bright optics. "What happened to her?"

He didn't bother to answer him because he didn't know himself.

Her head suddenly snapped back as a sharp gasp escaped her mouth. She clutched at her spark and gritted her denta together. The overcharged gleam in her optics faded away leaving her with a forced kind of sobriety. "Nonononononononono! Not here! Not now!"

Her panic made Sides sober up almost immediately. "Sweetspark?" He snatched her from him and shook her gently when she just kept repeating that same sentence over and over again. "Sweetspark what the slag is going on?!"

Jazz must have heard the commotion because he came over and peered down at Lilah too. "Li'l Lady? Wha's da matta?"

Lilah suddenly shot up and leapt clean over Sides' helm and landed with a dull thud on the other side of the couch. Her quick pede falls sounded before he could even get up off of the couch he was perched on.

"Sweets come back!" Sides exclaimed as he rushed out the door after her. He wasted no time in jumping up and rushing out the door as well.

She was moving so fast that by the time he and Sides got into the corridor she was already gone from sight. Luckily their olfactory senses were strong enough to catch her scent so they took off following after that. She was heading towards the hangar again.

They didn't bother exchanging any sort of dialect while they chased her. This was more like a instinctive, you just know what to do without communicating kind of thing. It was something that they did regularly, the talking between them was not really needed they just liked it.

And right now their processors were completely set on tracking her down and dragging her back to her quarters...or maybe their's if they felt like it. First they had to catch her.

There was a loud commotion from the main hangar sounding remarkably like Ironhide powering up his leviathan cannons, and Optimus's voice could be heard trying to talk him down. Lilah's voice drifted into their audio receptors next and she was yelling something at the top of her lungs. More like she was screeching so loud that it was hard to even make out what she was saying.

When they reached the main hangar dozens of soldiers were there with guns drawn, Ironhide still had his cannons pointed, and Optimus was standing between them and a group of humans... No they weren't humans. Even from here...

The distinct sound of sparks humming could be distinguished. And if that weren't enough seeing the same blonde femme from the other day was. She was standing next to three other femmes, all of who were staring at Lilah who was screeching at the black haired femme at the front of the group.

Cold angry blue optics seemed to glare at their femme, full aristocratic lips were pulled into a deep angry frown. Long black hair fell to her waist in a straight cut and her bangs were cut in a princess style. She stood a good human servo taller than Lilah so she was looking down at her like she was judging her.

Behind her stood two femmes that had dark brown hair and rich brown optics. Both of them looked torn between being angry or relieved. One had short hair that was cut off to her chin and loose bangs, she was wearing sleek black glasses.

The other one had long brown hair held in a high pony tail that reached her mid back. Her bangs were also loose, but whereas the other femme had a more severe look to her this one looked remarkably cheerful even while frowning.

"What the pit are you doing here?!" Lilah suddenly screeched angrily. "You had no right to come here Estellise! You are not going to tell me what I can and cannot do! And I am not coming back with you!"

The femme glared at him when he moved to touch Lilah's shoulder, the other two flinched back glaring as well, and the one known as Miata just shuffled nervously. "I cannot believe that you would lower yourself to bonding to one of them!" She spat while glaring right at him.

He growled and touched HIS femme's shoulder even if the other femme didn't like it. "She's mine and that means that I can touch her if I want to."

The femme that Lilah had called Estellise sneered at him, a look that was quickly shifted to Lilah as well. It only intensified when those hateful optics landed on Lilah's own defiant ones. "How could you? Do you not remember what they have done to us?"

Lilah suddenly stiffened under his servo and growled warningly. "I will only tell you one more time Estelle...Leave," she hissed venomously. The other femmes gathered shifted under the intense glare their femme sent at them, but the main femme held her ground.

"You would let them touch you after all that they have put you through? How can you even stand it?!"

"I can stand it because they didn't do anything," Lilah bit out through clenched jaws. "Now leave. You are not welcome or wanted here."

"Leave you here with them?" Those distrustful optics gave a cursory glance over every mech gathered from Prowl, to Optimus, to Ironhide, every mech, until they settled on him and Sides who were closest to Lilah and her group. "You will come back with us."

Lilah balked at the demand and snarled in sheer rage. "You do not have any authority over me Estelle and don't you forget that. I am staying here with my intended mates."

Just to emphasize her point she reached up and gently laid a servo over his digits squeezing them. "You will not tell me what to do. Now leave before I get nasty."

The glitch looked absolutely disgusted and horrified that their femme was touching him. She balked back in open disgust and glared even harder at him. "Get your filthy hands off of her you monster!"

"HE IS NOT A MONSTER! WE'RE THE FRAGGING MONSTERS! LOOK AT US!" Lilah suddenly exploded shrugging his servo off of her shoulder so that she could get right in the other femme's face. "YOU CAN SAY ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT TO ME ESTELLE BUT YOU LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS!"

"Don't you tell me what to do!" Estelle snapped back refusing to back down at all. She pushed back until the two of them were practically breathing down each other's throats literally. "I came here to take you home and I intend to!"

"WELL YOU'RE GOING HOME EMPTY HANDED BECAUSE I'M NOT GOING BACK! AND YOU CA-"

The yelling instantly stopped when a sleek black Mustang GT pulled into the hangar. He and Sides narrowed their optics on the vehicle warily suspecting that the other hybrid was inside. His spark sounded much louder than the other hybrids though.

The vehicle suddenly groaned and started shifting into the form of a mech roughly his and Sides' size. His shoulders and chassis were broad leading down to a lean waist and strong legs. He was definitely built well... But he was confused when he met those dark red optics...wasn't there supposed to be another hybrid.

And then he tensed as did every other bot in the room. By reflex he reached down and scooped his femme up mid yell whilst drawing both of his wrist blades. "You have some serious nerve coming in here con!"

The con looked confused. "Con? Lily what have you been telling these mechs? And why is he holding you like that?"

"Because he can Demetri," Lilah answered him curtly.

**'De-Demetri?'** Sides choked out over the bond. Feelings of disbelief and pure confusion swirled wildly in their spark. **'I thought he was a hybrid!'**

**'I did too.'** He sized the other mech up through narrowed optics. His chassis puffed up, shoulder plating shifting higher on his protoform to make him look bigger. He did not like the yearning look that this cheating slagger was giving HIS femme.

"Optics off of MY femme fragger. You had your chance and you fragged up. She's mine and my brothers femme now."

His words only served to anger the other mech. "Yours?! She's mine! She's always been mine!" He stomped closer and got in between them and the other femmes holding his servo out for what was not HIS. "Give her to me right now. She is my intended spark mate."

The other bots openly gaped at the scene this mech was making. "Do' he have a deat' wis'?" Jazz muttered.

In response he only held her tighter to his chassis and leaned in so that he was optic level with the other mech. "She is not yours anymore." Beside him Sides growled and armed himself as his own gladiator programming kicked on. "You don't even have the right to look at her anymore."

Demetri vented heavily frame shuddering with barely suppressed anger. He still didn't drop his servo. He only glared harder at him and glanced down at Lilah. "Lily what is the meaning of this? Why are you toying with these mechs? You've been mine since I first saw you."

"No I haven't."

Demetri seemed to balk back slightly at her denial. Then his shock quickly turned to anger. "What?! Yes you have been! We were set to become mates weeks after you left! What do you have to say for yourself?! How could you just leave like that without saying a word?!"

A deep warning growl started from the bottom of his chassis and worked its way up to tear out of his clenched denta. His gladiator programming was astroseconds from kicking on. "How dare you even ask her something like that after what you did?!"

Sides snarled and they both slid forward threateningly. "You frag another femme behind her back and you even have the nerve to ask her how she can leave without saying a word?!"

The other mech suddenly looked uncertain. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you are talking about."

The femme in his servo suddenly shot to her feet and lunged at the other mech's face plates. He caught her before she could touch him so she started shrieking at him instead. "HOW DARE YOU SIT THERE AND ACT LIKE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID?! I SAW YOU FUCKING HER DEMETRI! YOU FRAGGED HER ON OUR BERTH WHILE I WAS GONE AND YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO SIT THERE AND SAY THAT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT?!"

"YOU'VE PROBABLY BEEN FRAGGING HER SINCE I LEFT YOU ROTTEN SLAGGER! SO I'LL SAY THIS ONCE AND YOU'D BETTER LISTEN!" Both sets of optics met as she glared at him as harshly as anybot on base could ever imagine. "WE ARE OVER! I AM HAPPY WITH MY MECHS AND MY HAPPINESS DOES NOT INCLUDE YOU!"

Everything faded into an awkward silence for several moments after that. No bot said a word as Demetri just sat there staring blankly at Lilah with a gaping jaw and wide optics. And for her part Lilah continued to glare up at him her anger never wavering.

Demetri's expression suddenly morphed into one of intense rage. He suddenly lunged at him and Sides threw himself at the attacking mech from the side so that Lilah didn't get hurt from such a reckless charge. Both of them hit the ground rolling, Sides somehow managing to end up on top snarling. He retracted his blades and started punching Demetri in the face plates repeatedly while the other femmes watched in horror.

Demetri suddenly rolled taking Sides over where he pinned his twin using his knees to pin Sides' arms down. Lilah screamed when Sides was suddenly on the receiving end of several harsh blows from her former intended.

He snarled and charged just as Sides brought his legs up over Demetri's helm and wrapped them around his neck. Ratchet roared something about Lilah being in his servos so he quickly opened his hold and shoved her inside of it before slamming it shut. With her being safely tucked into his hold he lunged at Demetri who was being choked by Sides and tackled him from behind.

Sides never missed a beat, lunging his upper body up as soon as he lunged. He caught the other mech squarely and sent the three of them sprawling over the expanse of the hangar floor. Somehow he ended up on top of the competition and Sides had ended up underneath him with Demetri laying back against Sides' chassis.

He grinned and started slamming his servo into the fragger's cheek plates while Sides wrapped his servos around his throat and started choking him.

A shrill scream split his audio receptors making him suddenly turn in the direction of the others just in time to see an energy ball come flying at him. He ducked and rolled releasing the other mech to avoid being hit and came up scowling at the black haired femme that had even thought to attack him. "Bad move." He charged her.

Optimus suddenly interfered by getting in between him and his intended target. He almost hit the Autobot leader because he was moving almost too fast to stop. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" he roared angrily.

"No Sunstreaker. Your orders are not to harm humans, hybrid or not. Deactivate your battle protocols and cease this violence immediately."

He growled as his gladiator programming told him to remove the mech who was challenging him. The only reason that he didn't was because he was a Prime and some part of him recognized that instinctually. It didn't mean that he liked it, and the warrior in him wanted nothing more than to force his way passed and annihilate the femme that had attacked not only him, but his femme as well.

"You too Sideswipe! Deactivate your battle protocols and regain your composure!"

Sides growled angrily, out loud and through the bond. But he somehow managed to force himself to let his victim go so that he could come to stand beside him as calmly as he could.

His optics caught the Energon on his brother's servos and he grinned sadistically. That fragger needed to suffer forever thinking that he could take her from them. He looked back over his shoulder to see the mech on his feet and glaring at both of them. Next time they would see just how much suffering he could take...

"What the hell do you think that you're doing?!" the same femme that had attacked him screeched at him.

"Defending OUR femme from that fragger," he spat at her. His hold slid open and he reached in to retrieve Lilah. "Are you okay babe?" he asked, and knowing that the other mech was jealous and watching, nuzzled her against his helm while purring. Hopefully the other mech got the message...she was THEIR'S!

"Demetri would never hurt her! You on the other hand are a different story!"

"Right. As if he could even touch us if we were serious about kicking his aft," he snorted.

"At least my son isn't a monster like you!"

Son? "So what? You found a stray mechling and bonded to it? No wonder he ended up so sad and pathetic." Sides grinned at him for his blatant jab against the mech. He just snorted because the other mech was an underbred pansy that he could tear apart in astroseonds.

"No. Estelle is his biological mother," one of the other femmes, the short brown haired one responded quietly. "I'm guessing that Lily didn't tell you what we-"

"It doesn't matter!" Lilah suddenly cut her off. "Yes Demetri is Estellise's real son but none of that matters! What matters is that you all need to leave!"

The look on the other femme's face suddenly morphed into one of resentment and anger. "So you never told them about the real reason that we were created?"

"What are you even talking about? Li'l Lady just said that the cons were experimentin on human organisms for fun. Or somethin like dat." A shudder racked Lilah's frame...as if she was remembering some rather unpleasant things.

Estelle suddenly smirked at her. "Oh so you didn't give them the whole truth? How like you Lily...to not tell them that we were in fact created to be breeding tools for them."

He stiffened. Sides whipped his helm around to look at Lilah, as did every other Autobot on base. "Sweetspark...please tell me that she's lying..." She seemed to fold in on herself...but she didn't give any sort of response.

"Oh but it is true. Of course she wouldn't want to tell you that your kind both tortured...and raped us since we were younglings. Why would she?"

His servos suddenly wrapped around her cradling her as he brought her to optic level. "Babe? Is she really telling the truth?"

For a moment she didn't even move...and when she did it was to lift tear filled optics to him. "Y-yes it is..." She whimpered.

His whole fragging frame just froze up...because so much made sense now...and he didn't know what to really think about any of it. How did you handle it when you found out that the one that you were courting had been...he just held her tighter to him and purred low in his chassis to soothe her.

Because this didn't change what he saw her as being when he looked at it. She was still his intended...nothing that anybot could say would change that. And he had a feeling that this other femme had a lot more to say still...

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><p>R&amp;R and another cliffhanger! I want to dedicate this chapter to Sorana3 for her awesome review! Thanks it really made my day! READ! REVIEW! FOLLOW! Yeah all that stuff...but only if you like it. Flames are okay though as long as they are constructive. Until next time!<p> 


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Wow I got more reviews for the last chapter then I think that I have ever got for this story! Thanks to all of you who reviewed! Answerthecall, Sorana3, Guest, cmfanreidsgirl, Lina Marie 02, SunstreakersSquishy2.0, DarkshadowXsunny-sides, THoughtlessRage, and DinahDeath! Thanks for the awesome comments and praise! It really made my day yesterday! Anyways I do not own Transformers! Very graphic material here readers have been warned!

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><p>(Sides POV)<p>

It was quiet. No bot knew what to say. All he could do was stare at Lilah sitting in Sunny's servos in shock and...anger. He wasn't angry at her, no he was angry at what had been done to her. Not just her but these other hybrids as well even if they were a bunch of glitches. As much as he hated to admit it, they had a reason for being so angry and mistrusting.

"But how is that possible?" Ratchet suddenly asked. The CMO's shoulders were sitting completely stiff as well as the rest of his body. Anybot that knew him could tell that he was very angry about the recent insight into what these femmes had gone through. "We are of such vast differences in size. How can we interface and pass on our genetic coding to you in a way that your bodies can interpret it?"

From the corner of his optic he saw Lilah stiffen and turn sad optics onto Ratchet. "Holoforms are built up out of nanites and genetic coding. The only reason that human females can't be impregnated by interfacing with one of your holoforms is because the genetic coding between the two species is too different for the coding to attach to one of their eggs." She sighed and rubbed her face tiredly, shooting angry looks at the other femme that had started all of this. "But our genetic coding and body makeup are close enough to yours for us to properly receive your genetic coding through your holoforms. And there you have it! Hybrid/mech pregnancy."

The other femme scowled at her. "Always putting it in such a nice way aren't you? What about the rest of the things that happened?"

Lilah suddenly snapped at Estelle angrily. "What does any of that have to do with-well why the slag do they need to know everything? The only reason that you're saying anything in the first place is because you want to make them feel bad about something that THEY didn't do!" Their femme gestured at the bots gathered around widely. "They didn't do it! And if all you're going to do is try and make them feel bad about what happened then you can leave."

Estellise completely disregarded everything that Lilah had said and kept talking. "Have you ever wondered what those scars on her chest and stomach are from?"

"Estelle-" Lil started.

But Estellise cut her off completely. "They extracted eggs, coded and uncoded from us for study. Every one of us has probably been pregnant at least once, though the others never got to see their offspring. They were removed from our bodies at varying stages in their development and none of them are alive now."

Her words seemed to even make her fellow femmes anxious and disquieted, they were all shifting on their pedes and looking warily at her, and also at Lil who was glaring at her openly now.

But all he could think of was how horrible their lives must have been. He had thought that it couldn't get much worse than being street urchins, and fighting in the pits. But apparently he and his twin had been wrong and there were worse things. Because he had never been a breeding tool. He had never had his sparklings ripped out of his gestation chamber, he couldn't technically because he didn't have one... But the point is that all of the things that this femme was talking so casually about were fragging horrifying and it took a lot to unsettle or even disgust him and his twin.

"Freshly coded embryos...developing fetuses...full grown infants. All removed for study straight from their mother's womb." Cold blue optics shot over to lock on Lilah again. "And you want to mate with one of these monsters? Will it be worth it to lose another child? When they cut it out of you squealing and screaming? Will it be worth it then?"

Behind him he could feel Bluestreak shifting uncomfortably due to the topic but at least he was being quiet. Even that idiot knew how to shut his trap when important matters were being discussed. Or maybe he had caught onto the unease and mortification seeping through not just their ranks, but through the human ranks as well. The soldiers had long since dropped their guns and opted to stare in open shock...and even disgust.

"It really is very interesting what our offspring look like when they are born you know..." The crazy glitch started in a more relaxed tone like she was recalling old memories, and not crazy Energon filled ones. "Our wombs contain flesh like a human female's womb, but it is also comprised of a multitude of unused circuits and wires that are constantly replaced and rebuilt by our nanites. Our offspring use these components to make their own bodies though they have no actual armor when they are born. The sire's nanites contained in the genetic coding used to make the fetus effect things like gender, it helps affect size, mass, overall appearance. Their nanites encourage the used circuits to grow and merge once the embryo actually sparks."

Lilah suddenly vaulted down from Sunny's servo despite his twin reaching out to stop her. He wasn't fast enough and somehow Lilah had gotten down and into the other femme's face in an astrosecond. "Estelle...you act like you regret having Demetri. All these horrible things that you're spewing for the sake of vengeance? Wasn't he the spawn of one of these monsters as well?" She glared at the other femme and pointed at the black mech standing nearby. "He's their spawn as well and you love him right?" But she didn't even give the other femme a chance to respond before she started in on her again in an even more angry tone. "He's one of them! Look at him! What differences do you see?"

He scowled as did Sunny, but looked over at the other mech regardless. There really wasn't any discernible difference in him when compared to one of them. Metal armor, large frame, cannons built into the arms... The only differences were that his face plates were more human shaped, lips that were curved like an organics, and more distinguished human like features. Other than that there wasn't much that made him different. And he didn't like that.

"None!" Lilah snapped before everybot had finished looking. "He's one of them and you love him because he's your son! So why can't the rest of us love and care for them because our spark says it's okay?! Isn't that why you love him? Because your spark says that you have to? Well my spark tells me that it's ok to be here! My spark tells me that even if my head keeps telling me that these bots will hurt me, its wrong! Moondancer never hurt me! So that means that they have a capacity for love and compassion as well! So you're not going to tell me that-that they are sparkless monsters because it isn't true!"

"But Lilah they-"

"Did nothing," Lilah deadpanned in a quiet deadly tone. "I am not going to hold the actions of different bots on these bots when all that they've been trying to do is help me. Even when I was being a glitch about it! Even when I caused mayhem and stirred up trouble they still were forgiving! Even Sunny forgave me when I took his optic out when we first met!"

"And now we're intended mates and I'm not going to give that up for you or anybot else. I love him and Sideswipe and I will until the day that I die. I trust them not to hurt me intentionally or otherwise and you know what?" Lil took a deep breath and looked pointedly at the other femmes. "I feel more free now that I've learned how to look past that than I ever have before. I'm not going to bury myself under all of that agony again just because you can't trust or forgive..."

"You don't have to tell me what's happened Stelle...I was there. If I can move past it then you can too. I'm not saying that it will be easy but you can do it. And at this point you really don't have a choice anyways because the cons know about us."

A round of startled gasps came from the gathered femmes; they threw fearful looks at one another and bunched closer together instinctively. Demetri came over and crouched down next to them to offer them comfort to which they all just latched onto his pedes and plating fearfully, all besides Estellise who just looked furious.

"How? How can they know about us? We destroyed the lab and the bots inside!"

Lilah suddenly scowled at her and shrugged. "Well you didn't want to waste time being very thorough in making sure that everything was really destroyed..."

"There were reinforcements coming Lily!" the glitch snapped angrily. "We would have gotten recaptured if we had stayed any longer!"

"Then you should've let me stay! I would've done it and gotten out without getting caught!" Lil snapped back furiously. "They found all of it! Every file! And now my bastard sire wants to study us again! As if it wasn't enough to have to deal with Impact in the first place!" Their femme turned and started stomping a path in the hangar floor in her building ire. "The point is that this takes precedence over your little feud Stelle! We have to do something or else we'll all end up back in those labs again! And I don't want to spend the rest of my days being experimented on like a fragging animal! So we have to trust the Auto bots because they want to help us!"

Estellise was shaking her head back and forth before she had even finished her sentence. "Trust them? Trust them?!" She repeated quietly to herself before glaring openly at Lil again. "Why should I risk our sisters for a fool's gamble? Who's to say that after they see everything, every detail, that they won't do the same thing to us that the cons did? How can I trust that they will be protected if I were absent? How can you ask something like that of me?"

"Because I trust them," Lil answered quietly. She came to stand next to his pede leaning out to touch it gently, meeting his optics when he peered down at her, then turning back to the other femmes. "Because no matter how angry I am at Demetri and Miata for what they did, I would never put you in harm's way on purpose. If there was even a chance for one of them to turn on you I would not ask you to stay. And even now I know that you won't be able to choose based completely on what I have told you, and that's ok. But just think about it Estelle. Freedom from the fear of being hunted...if only for one moment? Doesn't that sound wonderful? To not have to run and fight constantly anymore?"

"From them? What about them? What if they decide later on to use us Lil? And don't say that it isn't an option because it is! With knowledge there is always a need for more knowledge, and sometimes it must be obtained through...less than moral means. The only reason that I did not immediately turn around and walk out as soon as you mentioned trusting these...bots," she said the word cuttingly while glaring warily at each one of them. "Is because despite your apparent abandonment of us, we do trust you in a way that cannot be explained."

One of the other femmes, the one with long brown hair slid forward slightly from crouching near the black mech's pede and smiled softly at Lilah. "And cause we all missed your humor too!"

"Annabelle!" Estelle scolded her harshly.

Annabelle grinned and it was infectious causing Lilah to grin slightly as well at seeing it. She suddenly crossed the distance and lunged for Lilah tackling her into a fierce hug and squealing. "I missed my Lilyboo!"

"Argh get off of me Raggedy Anne!"

"Noooo I missed you so much that I'm risking being stomped to death just to hug you!" The brown haired femme suddenly looked up at him and eyed him warily. "Ummm you uhh won't stomp me right?"

"No I won't." He couldn't help but to grin at the way her optics lit up when she went back to hugging and kissing Lilah's cheeks with loud obnoxious kissy noises. This one wasn't so bad.

The other femmes however...were looking at their addition between his pedes in complete fear and apprehension. Sunny suddenly snapped at them. "He said he wasn't gonna do anything to her! Neither of us will do slag if we say that we won't so stop gaping like a bunch of dumbafts!"

"Sunny be nice. Well I guess we can't really redeem ourselves much after beating Demetri's aft...but we can at least be more welcoming to the others." But not Demetri cause he was moving in on their femme, he was still focusing on her with way too much yearning contained in his optics. The observation had him scowling slightly.

Optimus suddenly stepped forward from where he had been standing beside Ironhide while the femmes went at it. "Miss Estellise," he murmured quietly to get the main glitch's attention.

Her head suddenly snapped over to him in surprise, her expression quickly turned to a scowl as soon as she realized that one of them had spoken directly to her. "What?!" she snapped.

Optimus crouched down before her making her inch back slightly. "I know that you have not had the best introduction to our kind and pain like that which you have experienced can make one have difficulty trusting, but I assure you that my bots will do no harm to any of your femmes or to your son. We have come here to eradicate the Decepticon threat to this planet and to preserve peace for all life here to grow in. And for that reason, for the threat that the cons present to you, I would offer our protection to your group."

It suddenly got quiet in the hangar. No bot was making a sound, not even Lilah and the femme that was rough housing with her. The other bots were just sitting waiting for some sort of response from the glitch, who for her part looked completely expressionless.

He leaned down and picked Lilah up from the floor resulting in a small indignant huff from the femme that had been holding onto her. The small thing surprised him when she merely jumped up onto his servo and plopped down next to Lil again. "Umm aren't you supposed to be afraid of me or something?" he asked awkwardly.

His question made Optimus and the glitch turn to look at him, and when the latter noticed the other femme in his servo her blank mask fell. "ANNABELLE WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! GET DOWN FROM THERE RIGHT NOW!"

"But Lil says that they're nice Stelle!" Annabelle protested loudly. She turned to him over her shoulder and pouted. "You are nice right?"

"Yeah I guess." Sunny gave him a scathing look from the corner of his optic to which he shrugged and grinned. "Yeah I'm a lot nicer than my brother that's why Lil loves me more." Something collided with the back of his helm sending pain shooting through his processor. He yelped and tossed a glare at Sunny. "OW! Watch it Sunny I have precious cargo over here! And I don't think that making me drop little Annie here is going to make Stelly over there very happy!"

Sunny scowled and smacked him again. "Stop giving them nicknames slagger! And why are you holding that femme anyways? What if she does that weird energy thing with her servos on your servo? Then I'm going to have to drag your leaking aft to the med bay!"

He opened his mouth to spew something back when a loud cough drew his attention back to Optimus. "Oh sorry. Be quiet Sunny Optimus is talking to Stelly over there about important slag." He shushed his twin which only earned him a glare in return from his loveable sunflower.

"Thank you Sideswipe," Optimus nodded at him once then turned back to the gli- Stelly. "You do not have to decide this all today Miss Estellise. However if you choose to leave then I must send a protector to watch over you to ensure your safety."

"What?" Stelly asked stupidly. "A protector? We don't need one. I assure you that any one of us is more than capable of protecting ourselves from one of your kind."

"With all due respect Miss Estellise I must insist regardless. Am I correct in thinking that you are probably taking up residence somewhere much closer now, at least temporarily?"

"Yes," she bit out.

"And con patrols are very active in this area. So you may require more protection than you think. That is why I was thinking of sending Arcee with you." The purple femme stepped forward when she was mentioned and smiled comfortingly at the other femmes. Optimus placed a servo on the marksman's shoulder. "Arcee here is a gifted marksman and one of my most trusted Lieutenants. I trust her to keep an optic out for any danger while you...deliberate my offer."

Arcee looked up at Optimus quickly before sliding forward on her wheeled pedes to stand before the gathered femmes. "I'm Arcee but you already knew that huh?"

Each of them stared Arcee down warily, but not as warily as they had stared the mechs down. Finally after several moments of this Stelly scowled again. "You expect us to tell one of your bots where we're staying? Why? So that you know where to come and find us when you decide that you want to experiment on something?"

"For the love of Primus..." Sunny and Lilah grumbled irritably at the same time.

Lilah sat up straighter and scooted to the edge of his servo so that her legs were dangling over the side. "Stelle if they really wanted to do something they could do it right here and now. As strong as you guys are there are more bots in this room, not to mention all of the human soldiers with guns. And yet none of them have made even a single move to hurt you. I know that you won't get over the anger and hatred immediately, but at least stop being so overly paranoid."

Stelly turned to gape at her. "You think that this is a good idea? Lily what has happened to your mind in your absence from us?"

"Umm I got over my inherent fear and mistrust. And Arcee there is a very good friend of mine whom I trust. She won't hurt you or betray your trust, and as for not wanting the bots to know where you are...they have me and I can easily find you no matter where you are. If I try that is."

It was somewhat comical how the other femme's face morphed from disbelieving to downright shell shocked in an astrosecond flat. "You wouldn't."

"To keep you safe I would," Lil shot back.

Estellise made a small angry sound from the back of her throat and turned to march towards the door of the hangar. "Fine! But if she tries anything..."

"I won't," Arcee remarked in a voice loud enough for the other femme to hear. The purple femme made her way after them after waving once at everybot gathered.

The other femme and Demetri followed leaving the other brown haired femme waiting expectantly. "Come on Annie we have to go."

Annie pouted and patted Lil once on the back before she jumped down and followed after the other femme. "Bye Lilyboo!" she called over her shoulder before she disappeared from sight.

A silence fell almost immediately as everybot, no matter how much they tried to hide it, turned to look at Lilah sadly. He and Sunny included but they did so openly and with obvious reassurances, at least that was what he was thinking, that he wanted to reassure and comfort her when he looked down at her.

All she did was peer up at him, at both of them with sad optics. Ones that were filling with Energon tears all over again...tears that she didn't let fall.

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><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

That night she had slept alone in her room, too ashamed and embarrassed to face the twins right away despite their reassurances that they weren't disgusted or angry at her. She was just very angry at herself for her incapability to defend herself from those things...too weak to protect her unborn sparklings.

Her dreams had been filled with nightmares of those scenes replaying over and over again. Being cut open. Watching her sparklings being pulled from her womb. Seeing them on the lab table being dissected like she had been. Hearing the cries and shrieks. Seeing and feeling the life fading out of their wide scared optics.

She woke up sometime around six AM and she hadn't even attempted to go back to sleep after that. Her breath had felt like it had been sucked out of her literally, like she had been repeatedly punched in the stomach over and over again. And the pain just wouldn't stop. And she had tried so hard to move on from that pain, to forget about them and what had happened to them. They were with Primus now in the well of sparks...where they weren't suffering anymore.

So why could the pain never fully leave her? She had not even known them, never had the chance to love them, and yet she was still tormented over what had happened to them. Over her weakness.

She pushed all of it away, all the pain and suffering, she took it and forced it into the back of her helm so that the pain would dull itself down. Glancing at the clock she saw that it was now after eight...she had to help Ratchet in the med bay this morning.

So she swung her legs over the side of the bed and went about her morning routine of showering and dressing herself. This morning she chose an emerald green low neck sweater that ended at her thighs, and a pair of black yoga pants, and a pair of black converse. She tossed her wet hair up into high pony tail and secured it before turning and knocking on the twin's door.

There was no sound to alert her that one of them was even awake, that was why when she shrugged and turned to leave anyways she was surprised when the door slid open to reveal Sides. Their optics met his were filled with affection and reassurance.

At this point she wasn't sure how to feel, relieved, happy that they still cared for her, angry that they still wanted her knowing that she was so damaged, or just plain resigned. She settled on feeling relieved and angry at herself. "Hey. I'm going to see Ratchet now."

"Hold on I'm gonna come too!" Sides suddenly exclaimed before he disappeared from the doorway to rouse Sunny from their berth. Sunny grumbled and swatted at him but Sides wouldn't stop shaking him. "Sunny I'm going to the med bay with Lil. Do you want to come with?"

Sunny's optics onlined slowly. "What?"

Sides slumped and sighed. "I said I'm going with sweets to the med bay do you want to come?" he repeated.

The gold mech rubbed at his face plates tiredly before sitting up and hopping off of the berth. "I'm coming."

"Good." Sides came back over to her and plucked her off of the ground placing her on his shoulder. Together the three of them exited from the twin's room and made their way towards the med bay.

Something occurred to her in the silence of her own head at that moment. "Hey Sides?"

"Hmm?" He turned to look at her.

"Umm so I don't think the secret about hybrids is going to be a secret from Galloway for much longer. In case you seemed to have forgotten there were a crap ton of human soldiers there last night...one of them will probably report it." Why hadn't she thought about it before now? Because her head had been too filled with slag and pain and agony for her to be thinking clearly at all. Those men had seen what Estellise had done; they had heard every word that had been spoken. The secret that they had been trying so hard to keep a secret would not remain that way for long.

They reached the med bay doors and Sides paused in opening them to look at her in surprise. "Slag...I wasn't even thinking about any of that." He finally opened the door and walked in with Sunny trailing close behind.

Sunny grunted. "Optimus won't let that rotten fragger do anything to you and neither will we."

But she wasn't so sure. It continued plaguing her mind as Sides sat her down on Ratchet's desk, and when the CMO popped his helm in from his storage room she turned to him pleadingly. "Ratchet?"

The green mech stepped into the room and made his way over to sit at his desk. He leaned his helm down closer to her and raised an optic ridge. "Yes sweetling? I trust that you would not be sitting there looking so distraught over nothing?"

She scowled at him and shook her head. "No. I just remembered that some of the humans were present for the entirety of the conversation between us and Estellise...and they saw her energy attacks even. What if someone tells Galloway? What will he do to us?" A small trickle of fear managed to make its way throughout her body. Humans could be just as brutal and hateful as any bot could be...would they take them and try and experiment on them too? Were they forever destined to never be able to savor true freedom? Why hadn't she been more careful not to have that conversation in front of all of those men? She should have just taken it somewhere else! And what had Estellise been thinking when she started all of that? She must not have been!

All three mechs revved their engines loudly. "Nothing," Ratchet answered curtly. "Optimus will figure something out youngling, I promise. We will not let the humans or the cons get their servos on any of you for their own personal gain."

One of his servos gently cupped her around her back like a hug, she didn't even shy away from it this time. She relaxed into it and grabbed at his pinky digit to reassure herself that this was really happening. That he was here with her telling her that things would really be okay. But they weren't ok really and she knew that. Because the government could demand that the bots hand the hybrids over or be punished somehow for withholding them. And she didn't even want to think of what the humans would try and do to them. Banish them from the planet that was just starting to become like a home to them? Threaten to declare war on them? Disband NEST which would effectively make them go into hiding while they were probably hunted?

If it came down to that what would she do? There was no way that she would let it happen to save herself that was for sure. So if it came down to that...she would hand herself over to protect them. Even if it meant that she would suffer. Because she would let nobot else suffer for her.

"Ok," she sighed pushing his servo away. "Well what do you have for me to do today then?"

Ratchet hesitated for a moment looking somewhat unsure and awkward. "Well I...wanted to ask you more about this new breed actually. I know that it is not a topic that is comfortable for you but it may be beneficial for us to know."

Both Sides and Sunny looked ready to throttle Ratchet for even asking her that so she held up a hand to stop them. "Ok. I'll tell you what I know."

"As Estellise said we are able to use a mech's genetic coding the same way that a human female uses a human male's sperm to fertilize their eggs. Our eggs are more like unsparked protoforms rather than eggs in the human sense. When a mech's genetic coding fuses with the protoform our sparks shoot an electromagnetic impulse directly to the protoform creating a baby spark."

"After the base protoform is sparked the sparkling will draw unused circuits and wiring from our wombs to create its frame, unfortunately there are no parts there to create armor for their protoforms so they grow a flesh skin to cover their more delicate frames. For that reason they look very much like human babies when they are born, but they're more like pretenders. For Demetri, his sire created an armor set for him almost immediately after his emergence so the human skin was discarded. However Demetri can shrink his parts down much farther then one of you can, so he can in effect make his mech form shrink down to a human size. He can even project a holoform skin over it to blend in without even activating his alt mode."

Sides and Ratchet looked to be hanging off of every word that she said, while Sunny seemed to be torn between being interested and disgusted. His face plates were scrunched up like he had just tasted something disgusting and was contemplating gagging it up, but there was also a sharp glint of interest shining in his optics.

"What else...?" She racked her brain for any other important details and came up with a few. "Our sparklings grow at a much faster rate than a normal Cybertronian but that process slows down to its regular speed at roughly the human age of maturity. Once they reach that stage...well Demetri was the only one that reached that stage..." Her spark pulsed painfully and she waved off the worried looks that she got from the gathered mechs. "Once they reach that stage they can breed. We don't know if femmes like Demetri can be impregnated like we can because there was never one that lived past birth. But Demetri was of sexual maturity at roughly eighteen human years."

"Umm they can also be fitted with Cybertronian weapons like you can. They even have processors instead of brains like I do. Their bodies even function in almost the exact same way...but they can eat human food and convert it like we can. So they don't need Energon to survive, they can thrive off of converting organic foods."

Sides leaned down on Ratchet's desk with his chin propped up on his crossed arms. "So...you had sparklings?"

Sunny shot his twin an angry look. "Sides what are you thinking asking her questions like that?!" He whacked his red twin over the back of his helm making Sides yelp. "Don't you think that question might hurt her? Would you want to be reminded of slag like that?!"

Sides managed to look genuinely sorry as he rubbed the dent in his helm. "Sorry sweetspark I didn't mean to upset you."

She pushed away the strong pain in her spark from when he had asked her that and smiled softly at him. "It's ok Sides...I know that you didn't mean anything hurtful by asking that." A long drawn out sigh worked its way out from her mouth, seeming to relieve some of the pressure in her spark. "Yes I had sparklings...they were removed by Burstimpact and...my Sire."

Each one of them managed to flinch AND look completely pissed off at the same time. It looked like they didn't even know what to say about what she had revealed.

"I...well I never even got to hold them you know?" Her voice broke as the familiar sting of tears built up in her eyes again. She didn't want to cry again over the sparklings that she hadn't even been allowed to touch before their sparks were extinguished. And she didn't want to think of what was running through their processors when they were cut open while they were crying for her. So human like...a baby crying for their mother.

Sunny suddenly reached for her and lifted her from the desk. He brought her to his chassis directly over his spark and rubbed soothing circles on her back. "It won't happen again babe. When we have sparklings you'll get to hold them all of the time."

The sound of his spark humming through his metal plating helped make her feel safer. It helped to somewhat relieve her fear and uncertainties, but it wouldn't make her forget the pain and uncertainty completely. No it would take a long time for her to reach a point where she could even attempt to move on from this. It always did seem to take forever before she could even push the thoughts away enough to put her mask back in place.

But he was helping so she had to give him some gratitude for that. And it did feel nice to be held by him like this since he was not so affectionate as Sides was. Then something that he said registered making her snap her head up to look at him. "Wh-what? Did you just say that you...wanted sparklings with me?"

Ratchet coughed awkwardly, Sides grinned, and Sunny himself blushed deeply. "Well...Sides has always wanted them and since we're one spark in two bodies...his sparklings would be mine too. So yeah...at some point we would like them," he muttered awkwardly.

She raised a brow at him. "So you want them too? Or does Sides just want them so you feel like you have to have them?"

He didn't answer her so Sides came over and clapped him over the shoulder. "Oh he wants them but he just doesn't want to admit that he does because that would ruin his macho image." All seriousness aside, Sides grinned at his twin and waggled his optic ridges at him.

Sunny only glared at him and smacked him over the helm again. "Shut it afthole! And stop saying what I'm thinking to others!"

"Wouldn't have to if you would just say what you think for once," Sides argued. He danced out of the way when Sunny swung at him again, and somehow managed to get around on Sunny's other side so that he could snatch her up from his golden brothers servos.

Sunny growled and lunged for him, Ratchet just barely managed to swipe her from Sides servo so that she didn't accidentally get crushed. "Idiots! Your femme isn't exactly made of metal dumbafts! Do you want to accidentally crush her in one of your bouts of idiocy!?"

Sunny and Sides ignored him as they rolled around on the floor punching each other in the helms, and pinning each other to the floor. She smiled softly as her pain was dulled just by watching them play around like sparklings. "I wanna play too!"

They paused in wrestling to turn wide optics on her. "Play?" Sides growled out and punched Sunny in the side of the helm. "This is no game sweets! This is a wrestling match to the death!"

"Well you can take your wrestling match to the death out of my med bay slaggers! And don't you have to tend to Aednat this morning anyways?" Ratchet groused after sitting her on his desk.

Sunny and Sides immediately paused in their wrestling. "Oh slag!" They both muttered at the same time before they shot to their pedes and rushed out the door. "Bye baby!" Both called after they disappeared from sight.

Ratchet murmured something under his breath about dumbaft slagging glitches as he handed her several boxes of random supplies to be sorted. He went to do his own work, sorting supplies, organizing them.

She just focused on doing her own work, thankful that it took her mind off of her past for even a moment.

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

"Aednat no!" Sides scolded the cybercat after the damn thing had torn a hold in Lilah's bed spread when she decided to sharpen her claws on it. He snatched the fragging thing off of it and moaned at the damage done to their femme's pretty red blankets.

The damn cybercat had the nerve to look sheepish from where Sides was cuddling her in his servos. He just frowned at the slagging thing and yanked the sheets and blanket off of Lilah's bed so that he could look them over. Big holes were torn over several feet of the material.

"So now it will offer no warmth for Red now...fragging cybercat!" He balled the blanket up and tossed it to the side. The sheets went next when he noticed that those were torn up as well. "And of course the mattress has holes in it too..." So he flipped the fragging mattress over so that the good side was pointing up.

Sides scolded Aednat by spanking her little aft, stupid thing had the state of processor to look up at his twin and mewl innocently. "No Aednat! Bad cybercat! Look at what you did to danniluk's berth!"

His entire frame froze up and he turned to his twin. "What did you just refer to Lilah as...to that mangy scrapling?"

"Umm danni-" Before Sides could even get the words out he had slammed his fisted servo into his helm making him yelp. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Lilah is not her femme creator!" he growled, glared at the innocent looking creature, then stormed out of the room. Now he had to get Red a new bed spread because her damn cybermonster had shredded hers! But first he wanted to find her and take her with... Hopefully she was done with Ratchet by now.

"Aww come on Sunny! Lil is kind of her femme creator right?" Sides could be heard trailing after him.

"No because that would make us her opiluks and I am not that thing's mech creator!"

"But she's kinda cute!" Sides protested.

"Don't care."

"But Lil loves her!"

"Sides...I don't care," he bit out from where he had stopped in front of the med bay doors. They slid open before Sides could comment and he slipped inside without waiting for him to catch up.

Ratchet was absent again, and Lilah was sorting some medical supplies for the CMO on the counter opposite of the door. She looked up when he came in and frowned because he was scowling. "What happened this time? What did Sides do?"

Sides poked his helm over his shoulder and pouted. "Nothing! I just called you Aednat's danniluk and Sunny got all pissy about it!"

"Slagger shut it!" His fist found a home in Sides helm for what seemed to be the millionth time that day. "Look babe Aednat destroyed your bed spread so we need to go and get you a new set."

She blinked owlishly at him. "She destroyed my blankets and sheets?"

"Yes she shredded them with her claws." He shot Aednat a glare when she perked up and mewed when her optics landed on Lilah on the counter. She jumped down and dashed across the room to jump up onto the counter where she proceeded to rub herself against Lilah's entire body while purring.

"Aednat...mama's not in a good mood today and you've been such a bad girl!" Lilah sighed and shoved the last of the supplies into a cupboard.

**'See she called her the human equivalent to danniluk,'** Sides pointed out.

**'Sides...do not start. Lilah does not need this today or have you forgotten about our conversation with her earlier?'**

That made his twin shut up. **'Right. Sorry Sunny.'**

Both of their optics drifted over to her when she jumped off of the counter with Aednat and made her way over. There was a subtle glint of sadness and longing in her optics that they hadn't seen before, but she was doing well to hide it. It didn't matter because he could still see it and it bothered him to know that she was probably thinking of the sparklings that had been taken from her. Something that no mech had the right to do.

But he pushed it away to offer her a servo. "Come on babe...and we can't take Aednat with us. Let's put her with Jacky until we get back."

"Ok."

* * *

><p>The trip to the store was a quick one and they made it back within an earth hour. Now Lilah was settled atop her new red and gold comforter reading something on her laptop while Sides sat beside her in his holoform and read over her shoulder.<p>

Aednat was sitting near his holoform pedes for some reason while he painted on a smaller canvas. He contemplated pushing her away from him but she was sleeping now, and he would do anything to keep her asleep so that she didn't end up destroying something else.

He concentrated on his painting...another scene from the carnival... The one where he had won her the gold bear that she had named Gir, the bear that she still had on her bed beside the bear that Sides had won her. If he recalled correctly she had named it Zim or something.

Anyways he had painted her after he had given it to her. She was smiling softly in the picture down at her new toy. Small, wistful, but also filled with genuine happiness and joy. He wanted her to look at this and remember that there could be good moments in life. That not all of it was bad, and that by staying with them they would make sure that she had plenty of moments like this from now on. They would make her happy every day. They would not let her suffer. And if anybot took her from them they would stop at nothing to get her back.

The only problem was that he was embarrassed to show her the painting. And he was angry at himself for being so embarrassed because it was not like him to be unsure of his own work or others reactions to it. But with her he wanted everything to be perfect for her...he wanted her to be so irrevocably happy when he did things for her that it drove his processor crazy.

Shifting in his seat he peered around the canvas at the object of his thoughts. She was finished reading whatever she had been working on and now she was laying back against Sides on the berth. It was now or never... "Hey babe can you come here for a sec?"

She stopped talking to Sides and hopped off of the berth to come over to his side. When she stepped up beside him she gasped softly and reached out to touch the still wet painting.

"Still wet babe," he murmured quietly. She drew her hand back and just stared at his canvas quietly. It was actually making him nervous that she didn't like it. "So what do you think?"

"Sunny every painting that you do is beautiful even the ones that you toss," she murmured and sat down in his lap. "I love it...though I don't think I'm nearly that pretty."

"You are too," both he and Sides responded simultaneously.

For several astroseconds she didn't respond to what they had said... Then finally she turned to him and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling her body almost fully against his. "You did this to make me feel better didn't you? Just like Sides was helping me study to take my mind off of everything."

Sides smirked. "Well I can tell you that you're right about Sunny...but I just wanted to cuddle you... And make you feel better," he added with a cheeky grin. "Did it help?"

"Mmmm hmmm. You guys may be crazy pranksters but you're too good to me. If it wasn't for you I would probably still be alone for the rest of my life...and it's going to be a very long one still."

He hummed and returned her embrace leaning his forehelm against her forehead. "I'm glad that we managed to convince you to come here...and I'm glad that the squishy convinced you to give us a chance. Most femmes don't like commiting to us you know?"

Her optics dulled with pain. "I can relate to that. Most mechs don't want to commit to a femme like me either. Just look at what happened with Demetri."

Both he and his twin growled at the mentioning of that designation. "Well we are committed to you. If you want us we're here to stay babe."

"Promise?" she asked quietly, meekly, head tilted down so that her optics were level with his. In her gaze he could see so much uncertainty and fear, so much pain...

"We promise," both he and Sides murmured together. He leaned up and pressed his lips against hers to convey his seriousness on the matter. As long as she wanted them they were here to stay and even if she didn't they would do anything they had to do to get her back.

Their sparks were set on her, and bonds such as the one that they had forged through revealing pain, sharing fear, were not easy to break. One day they would tell her about their own pain, that way she would understand the complete depth of what she was to them.

Hopefully she would still want them when that day came.

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><p>R&amp;R! Thanks for the reviews! Please keep any comments that you have coming, criticism or otherwise so that I know which points you were happy with or unhappy with. Don't be afraid to comment!<p> 


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Review time! Sorana3- Yeah I'm glad I finally got it out in the open. DarkshadowXsunny-sides- Yeah I'm working on that right now. Answerthecall- I wanted to keep it original. And thanks! SunstreakersSquishy2.0- Smiles back* Well it's coming already cause I can't stop writing this story! DinahDeath- I'm glad that you liked the chapter. I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Sunny was out on patrol, Lil was training with Ironhide, and he was sitting outside of the shooting range contemplating the same thing that he had been thinking about for the last four days. Ever since that glitch had come and said those things, since she had told everybot about those horrible things that the hybrids had gone through.

He wanted to tell Lil about his past, at least a little bit. But he wasn't sure about whether or not Sunny wanted to talk to her about it yet. His twin was proud of being a gladiator and the best one since Megatron's time. However, Sunny was also a lot more awkward and introverted than he was, he didn't like to talk about anything even his past.

Not that he needed to because all of the bots on base knew what they used to be. They knew that he and Sunny were two of the best gladiators in the Kaon pits. That was why their skills were so highly valued, because they could and would fight their way out of just about anything with skills, precision, and plain ferocity.

But now he wasn't so sure about whether or not Sunny would want to tell Lil everything. He had felt and heard his twin contemplating talking to her about it in the last few days. In his opinion it was a good idea to tell her, talking about one's past helped to build trust. And Lil hadn't exactly opened up on her own about her past; it was more like outside influences had forced her to talk before she was ready.

He didn't want it to be like that for them. They would talk to her about it all on their own with no prompting. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to get Sunny to participate in the whole mess. But for now that would have to wait because it was almost noon and Lil would be done with her practice in a moment.

Pushing himself up into a standing position, he turned and made his way into the training room just as Lil handed her gun back to Ironhide. He quietly made his way over to stand behind her raising his servos to scare her despite the warning look that Ironhide was giving him.

"Sides don't even think about it," Lil turned back to him and suddenly deadpanned.

He deflated instantly, optics landing on her glowing green optics again. "Awww cheating again Lil?" he pouted.

She shrugged and grabbed her small bag that she used to carry her laptop before hopping up onto his servo. "It's not cheating Sides. You like to cheat," she pointed out.

"Do not." Getting to his pedes and turning, he made his way out the door with Lil clutched in his servos.

She got quiet after the initial exchange of playful banter. He was used to this behavior from her in the last few days, flashes of the playful Lil, then she was gone behind a quiet somber mask. In these moments he had to wonder what exactly she was thinking about? Was she thinking about her sparklings? Or was she thinking about her family? Whenever he met her optics she never seemed to see him, and all he could see was a sea of pain rolling around inside of her.

Almost like she was sitting adrift on turbulent winds and struggling not to get torn up by the colliding jet streams. Sometimes he just couldn't tell if...if she was winning or letting herself fall. It hurt to know that there was little that he could do short of making her talk to him about it, and making her do anything would not be good for her.

She had been made to do enough in her life. The med bay finally came into view and he opened the doors and walked inside.

Ratchet was nowhere to be seen in the main room so he called out for him. "Ratchet?! I brought Lil for you!"

No response. So he wasn't in the med bay.

He opened a com link to Ratchet's direct line. **'Hey Ratchet where are you? I have Lil in the med bay waiting for you.'**

It took a moment for the CMO to respond back. **'I am in Optimus's office discussing some possible new arrivals. Lilah can have the cycle off, tell her that we will catch up tomorrow.'** And then he briskly cut the com link off.

Well that was a good thing for him; at least he didn't have to be alone until Sunny got out. "Well sweets Ratchet is in a meeting so he said that you can have the cycle off. What do you wanna do until Sunny gets back?"

They left the room and made their way towards Lil's quarters to retrieve Aednat who they had made Jacky build a berth/cage for so that she couldn't destroy the room when they were gone.

"Umm I don't know really. When does Sunny get out?"

"Not too much longer. I was asking what you wanted to do until then?" They stopped in front of her door and stepped inside. He sat Lil down near her bed before sitting down cross legged on the floor next to Aednat's cage.

Lil quickly ran over and released the beast from her cage; Aednat was on her almost immediately. Both of them tumbled to the floor where Aednat pinned Lil under her chassis. Lil reached up and patted Aednat's helm gently before pushing her off.

Once she was free she got to her pedes and made her way over to sit on his knee joint, Aednat following in her pede steps less than a foot away. The cyber feline curled up against his leg. Lil stared down at her and snorted through a small strained smile. "Are you guys sure that she's a battle model? Because she acts like a fragging overgrown house DOG, not cat."

"Yes she is a battle model," he answered quietly looking into her seemingly permanently pained optics. Optics stained a deep color, shining blue; it was like you could see each bad experience reflected in the rapidly changing color of her optics. And he had no idea how to make it all better. Everything that they, he and Sunny, had been doing was dulling her pain or at least making it easier for her to not think about it constantly. But he needed to know what he could do to actually relieve it.

If only he could sparkmerge with her he could alleviate the pain for her...but he couldn't do that for several different reasons. One being that Sunny had to be present for that as well. The second being that if they sparkmerged it would bond them as sparkmates, and to do that interface was required at least for the first merging. The third thing was that she shouldn't be rushed, and he was sure that she wasn't ready for interfacing. Pit he doubted that she ever would be!

Now more than ever he just wanted to...to have the power to change things in any way he wanted. Just for one fragging day! If he could he would go back and change all of that suffering so that Lil wasn't like this now. So that he could see her smile again, not a fake one, but a real fragging smile. But he wasn't Primus and he couldn't do that, he couldn't go back into the past and fix it. And that angered him.

"Sides?"

Optics drifted down to her face. "Yeah?"

Her head was bowed down as her digits idly moved over his paint and joints. "Umm you and Sunny know a lot about my past, but I don't know anything about yours. What was it like growing up on Cybertron?"

For a moment he was tempted to tell her but he thought better of it...that was something that he and Sunny needed to tell her together. "Sweets...I think that we should wait for Sunny before we talk about that okay?"

Her optics drifted up to his face. "Ok."

He frowned at her ghosting his digits down over her hair. "And he might not want to talk about it right away. If he doesn't then we have to wait until he is ready okay? Sunny won't talk to you if he doesn't want to."

"Ok."

"Good." Sighing he turned towards the TV and turned it on. "Want to watch a movie or something while we wait for Sunny to come back?" When she just nodded at him he sat her on her pedes so that she could put one in.

When the opening for the movie started he moved to prop himself back against the wall next to her bed while he grabbed her and moved to settle her against his abdomen. Stepbrothers flashed across the title screen. He settled back and covered his femme with one of his servos to keep her warm.

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

It was sometime about halfway through the movie that she first sensed it. A faint trickling pull on her awareness, one that she instantly recognized as Annabelle... "Oh frag me sideways!" She groaned before hopping off of Sides abdomen.

"Lil? What is it?" Sides got up to follow her march towards the door. Aednat was following close behind him.

"It's Annabelle! She must have snuck away from Jezz to come and sneak into the base." She exited her room and muttered under her breath while making her way to the front hangar. She could also sense Sunny there and she guessed that he had just come back from patrol.

Sides was quiet while he followed her and she was both grateful and frustrated for the silence. It wasn't like Annie would do anything bad to anybot on base; she was just a bit of a menace. Back before she had run off they were pranking buddies, always getting into trouble and raising pit. She was also the one femme among their group that she was sure would be able to keep the wrongs of the cons placed where they belonged, on the cons. But Estelle was going to have her aft for sneaking into a base full of bots!

They stormed into the main hangar past Jazz, Blue, and Ironhide. Sunstreaker saw her and made his way over to her when she stopped dead under a set of rafters and pointed at them. Which he gave her an odd look for. "ANNABELLE GET OUT FROM THE RAFTERS RIGHT NOW! GET YOUR AFT DOWN HERE BEFORE I COME UP THERE AND GET YOU!" she yelled.

Her little shouting match with the ceiling earned her several weird looks from the human soldiers passing by, as well as raised optic ridges from Sunny and Sides, the latter who had come to stand beside his twin. Both of them were peering up at the particular spot that she was staring at.

A spot that Annabelle peeked out from a moment later...grinning. Her friend suddenly rolled off of the rafters while screaming. "NINJA ROLL!" And she freefell straight towards...her.

At the last second she caught the brunette, who hit her with so much force that she stumbled and fell flat on her aft because of the unexpectedness of the attack. She glared heatedly at Annabelle and pursed her lips. "Why were you in the rafters? And how did you get in without anybot seeing you?"

Annie bounced up and grinned. "Well I was in the rafters because I didn't want your friends here to find me! But I knew that you would so it's ok!" She waved at Sides and Sunny and then over at the other bots while grinning. Apparently she was not holding any grudges... "And as for how I got in without being seen..." She waved everybot over, they all complied by leaning closer like it was some big kind of conspiracy.

She only rolled her eyes and humored her friend.

"It's because I'm a ninja."

Jazz and Sides actually snickered at her, Bluestreak just looked somewhat dumbfounded, and Sunny snorted and proceeded to openly ignore her. While she was busy smacking herself in the head repeatedly at the sheer stupidity of her friend. "Annie what if I hadn't been paying attention? How long would you have waited up there?"

Annie pursed her lips and cocked her head to the side. "As long as it takes yo! A real hood ninja never walks away from a mission!" At the end of her sentence she smacked both fists against her chest and pulled dual peace signs earning her more quiet laughter from the other bots.

"What the slag are you?! What planet did you come from?!" She muttered under her breath.

But Annie seemed to have heard her just fine because the next moment she had somehow rushed across the room and jumped onto the walkway that was designed so that humans and bots could interact more easily. Once she was there she held her servos up in the air and called for attention.

"Oh my Primus she is not doing what I think she's doing!" She shot to her feet and ran towards the balcony.

"FOR ALL OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW MY NAME IS ANNABELLE! I HAIL FROM PLANET EARTH!"

"Annabelle shut up!" She lunged up the balcony and raced towards her friend.

"AND I'M A REAL FUCKING NINJA! THAT'S WHY YA DIDN'T KNOW THAT I WAS IN THE RAFTERS ABOVE YOUR HEADS!"

By now several more bots had gathered, Optimus, Ratchet, Prowl, Ironhide...and they were all staring at Annabelle with wide optics. But that didn't deter her at all, nor did it stop her when she tackled her to the ground. "MY BRA SIZE IS 38C! I'M FIVE FOOT SEVEN INCHES TALL! OW LILYBOO THAT HURT!" She squealed when she pinched her thigh harshly.

"Then shut up!"

Somehow Annabelle managed to free herself by rolling quickly and taking off running. "I LIKE PRANKING! EATING LILYBOO'S COOKING! BLOWING STUFF UP WHICH LILYBOO USUALLY HELPS ME WITH!"

She jumped up and took off after the other femme. "ANNABELLE SHUT IT RIGHT NOW AND STOP TELLING OTHERS YOUR BRA SIZE!"

"OK I WON'T! I'LL TELL THEM YOUR BRA SIZE!" Annabelle grinned cheekily and jumped down off of the balcony onto the hangar floor. "FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW LILYBOO HAS HUGE TITS! THEY'RE A NICE 38DD! SHE'S FIVE FOOT SIX AND HOT AS PIT!"

"ANNABELLE I WILL FREAKING KILL YOU!" A furious mortified blush erupted across her cheeks when several soldiers gave cat calls and wolf whistles. And how had she still not caught her yet?!

"SHE LIKES PRANKING, COOKING, FIGHTING, AND SHE HAS PASKAPHOBIA! FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW THAT'S FEAR OF FISH!"

"IDIOT THAT'S YOU!" She finally caught up to her and tackled her to the floor pinning her. Red was literally all that she could see right now! She was so fragging angry at Annabelle right now for sneaking into the base where she didn't actually have clearance, and for telling the others her bra size! "Does Jezz know that you're here?!"

Annie pouted and toyed with her fingers nervously. "No."

Groaning, she got to her feet and pulled Annie up from the floor. Pinning her with a stern look, she crossed her arms across her chest and stared her down. "Jezz and Estelle are going to kill you Annie! You know that you should never go anywhere without Jezz! You may be double spark but your bond is still strong enough to cause her a lot of pain if something did happen to you!"

Annie deflated and pouted sadly. "But I...wanted to see you." She pouted and gave her the best puppy dog expression that one could ever be subjected to. "Just cause the others are scared of the...umm bots so much that they won't come and see you, doesn't mean that I am."

Her gaze softened slightly and her anger faded and bled out of her. "Annie you still shouldn't have done that. The last thing that we need is for Estelle to storm the base because she thinks that the bots kidnapped you or something! And you know that's what she's going to think!"

Annie managed to look sheepish as she retrieved a phone from her pocket and held it out for her. "Well that was why I was going to have you call her."

Her breath got caught in her throat making her choke. "Wh-What?! Oh pit no! Why do I have to be thrown to the sharks just because you wanted to get out and raise pit?"

Annie whined and latched onto her arm with a pleading look resting in her eyes. "Pleasepleasepleaseplease! I want to stay here for the day with you because everyone else is too busy and no one wants to do pranks with me! Pretty please with cherries and whipped cream on top!"

"I hate cherries, not the taste of artificial stuff but real cherries themselves," she deadpanned earning herself a small glare from Annie.

"Fine then...if you do this for me I will get you a dozen custard filled long john donuts!" The others looked confused by the bribe, but Annie was pointing at her victoriously.

She still weighed her options for a moment. Did she really want to be subjected to Annie today when she was still so messed up about all the crap that had happened to them growing up? Would having somebot with her who had experienced these things before help her forget, or would Annie be okay with venting about it? And if she was would it hurt her at all to be subjected to her pain? No she would not let Annie suffer if she vented to her. She was an empath after all, among other things; she would disperse it before it even reached that point.

Still facing Estelle to allow her old friend to spend time here...and then there was Optimus. They had yet to ask him if it would be okay. She sighed and pointed at the blue and red Auto bot leader pointedly. "You have to ask him if it's ok for you to be here. This is a TOP SECRET MILITARY BASE, after all! Not just anybot is allowed to be here."

"So mean..." Annie murmured before skipping over to stand at Optimus's pedes, she suddenly became more reserved from slight fear, when she looked up at the mech warily. "Ummm I...could I..." She pointed at her as her voice died off.

Optimus for his part looked completely at ease when he looked at her as if to ascertain what she thought of Annie staying on base for the day. She just shrugged and made a dismissive motion with her hands. Optimus turned back to Annie and crouched down more to her level even if his helm was still several feet above Annie's head. "So long as you promise not to harm the base and its residents you are welcome here."

Before Optimus could go any farther she cut him off. "Oh she won't harm anybot on base...but her pranks might harm the base itself. So no explosives Annie!"

If possible the other gathered bots eyed Annie somewhat warily, probably because of the twin's influences and hers.

"No harming the bots or human soldiers on base then. I must also ask you to refrain from using your powers while in the building, after your leader's little show of strength the other cycle we are busy trying to devise a way to keep it a secret from the government. So please refrain from doing that as well as we do not need anybot else seeing it."

"Okey dokey artichokey!" Annie saluted him before turning and skipping back over to her, past several snickering soldiers including Lennox. When she reached her side Annie grabbed her and dragged her off in the direction of the rec room. "Let's play catch up sis!"

All she could think was...oh Primus not catch up!

* * *

><p>"So how have the others been while I was gone?"<p>

Annie looked up at her from where she had been playing with Aednat. Her eyes darkened slightly in pain. "It hasn't been so good Lilyboo. Jezz and I were really upset that you left, so was everyone else but...Miata and Demetri started seeing each other not too long after you left. It was almost like they didn't even miss you really."

That didn't surprise her since she had caught him cheating on her with Miata before she left. She was tempted to peek and cheat by using her own powers just to make sure that Annie was telling her the whole truth, but she didn't because Annie had done something that the others had not been able to. She had not held the actions of a few on the entire Cybertronian race. That didn't mean that she wasn't still scared of the other bots because she could tell that she was, but she was trying and that was enough. "Oh? Miata didn't even mention that when I first saw her on the streets. Are they happy together?"

Annie looked away uncomfortably. "No they aren't seeing each other anymore. Their relationship was only a brief one filled with lust on Demetri's part. He broke up with Miata and told her that he would only ever love you and that what she was hoping for wouldn't happen. Miata was pretty sparkbroken after that because she...she did have feelings for him. I think that she still does."

Yes she had picked up on that as well when she had seen Miata clinging to Demetri's pede in fear the other day. There had been a softness to her eyes that was similar to how Sides or Sunny looked at her, only not as intense. And her empathic abilities had confirmed her hunch, love, adoration, yearning, and pain. Poor Miata...being used like that. "Well then I'm glad that I didn't stay with him Annie. He doesn't deserve a good femme, he's the type to use them like that as substitutes for another femme."

"True. But he's still big brother...so we have to find a way to forgive him. Not for what he did to you, but for loving you enough to do what he did. Because we all love you too much to explain you know?"

"Yeah I know." From the corner of her eye she saw Sides and Sunny come into the room quietly. She said nothing and focused back on the conversation. "I wish that...that I could say that I regret the things that happened Annie, but I can't. I found the two that I was meant to find and...I'm so much happier than I ever was with Demetri. It's like the pain can't drag me down completely because they keep me grounded. I love them for it...for everything that makes them...them."

Annie's eyes widened with a gleam. "You really love them that much? That's so awesome Lilyboo! I wish that I could find a male that loved me that much but...I could never share all of my past with them." Her eyes suddenly dulled in agony.

Flashes of her own suffering at the servos of the cons suddenly rushed through her mind, intermingled with Annie's own when her sensory skills perked up. Pain, tearing, agony, fear, splitting, fighting, struggling to remain sane. The pain almost made her pass out, it always did, but she didn't give into it. She used her powers to alleviate the pain that Annie was feeling as she always had. So that her friend would not have to suffer the full extent of that pain anymore. It was something that she used to do before she left, for all of the others.

It had been something that she had felt guilt over when she had left, that they would no longer have her calming influence to dull their pain. "I'm sorry Annie." She felt the sudden urge to atone for her abandonment of them, for the pain that they had suffered both because she had left for her own selfishness, and that they had suffered more for it. "I'm sorry for leaving you all to suffer. But I just couldn't deal with Demetri and Miata betraying me like that...and I left you all when you needed me. I wasn't there to take your pain away and make it more bearable."

Tears filled both of their eyes, Annie sniffled and lunged at her over Aednat tackling her into a hug. She proceeded to sob into her shoulder. "It wasn't fair!"

"I know." Faint tears tracked down her own cheeks. But she didn't sob, she just concentrated on making her feel better.

"You were always there dulling the pain and we all took that for granted. Sometimes I wondered if our pain was fueling your own but I never asked! And then I was so sad when you left that I blamed myself for not being strong enough to handle the pain! For pushing it all onto you because I was weak!"

Her eyes widened in surprise. This was not at all what she had expected her to say, not the reason that she expected her to be suffering from. Annie was crying over the pain that they had caused her? Pain that she had willingly, and unwillingly taken on herself before she had learned how to dull her powers down. It hadn't ever made her angry at them, nor had she ever regretted what she was... But it had been painful to have to take their emotional and physical pain on herself, though she had never complained because she did not want to make them feel guilt.

Everybot had the right to feel, even if it was from pain. So she could have never asked them to stop, to get a better handle on their emotions, because their suffering was as deeply seeded as her own. It didn't matter that her agony was fueled by theirs, they couldn't help the pain that they felt. And even now when the images and pain were flashing through her mind and into her spark making her feel like she was being crushed...she couldn't ask her to stop.

"Oh Annie I never blamed you for that!" She pulled her sister figure's face back so that she could look her in the eye. "It isn't any of your faults that I am a giant information sponge! It isn't your fault that I was born as an empath! And I never blamed you when your pain fueled my own making it worse! Because I don't have the right to do that Annie, to tell you not to feel what you feel. And you know what? After I realized that it was making you all feel better for me to take it into myself, I felt better about it. So I would never change that because you all needed me to be what I was meant to be." She pulled the still crying femme back into her chest and buried her face into the soft brown locks at the top of her head. Her own tears started falling faster blurring her vision, and she let them fall without restraint, leaking not only her own pain but Annie's as well.

It didn't matter when the twin's walked in after apparently having heard the commotion, it didn't even register when they sat down behind her on the rec room couch and started up that soothing purring sensation again...all that her mind could cycle through was the pain, direct it to her spark, and then rationalize it before expelling it in the only way that she could. By crying her fragging eyes out.

She sapped it all, every last bit that was permeating her friend's spark, until Annie was suddenly moving her to be cradled against her chest while she sobbed loudly about pain that was both hers and not hers. Jolt after jolt of pure agony shot straight through her, seemingly endless sorrow engulfed her like a deep pit that she couldn't get out of. The separate emotions and memories blurred until she couldn't even tell where one started and the other ended.

There was more than just the two of their emotions, the emotions of the twins were flooding into her. Worry, anxiousness, anger, yearning. Her power spread out and latched onto their mental processes drawing them in as well. It only served to make her panic when flashes of brutal violence invaded her mind. Energon spilling, fear, rage, pure killing intent, somebot ripping limbs off, pain, agony. A constant fight for survival. Offline! Offline! Offline! She could hear multiple voices chanting, she could see a mech bloodied and broken at her feet, not her feet, bright golden pedes.

A sound of pure terror fell from her lips; her mind just couldn't handle all of this pain at once! Not when her own was still so fresh and throbbing painfully in her spark, haunting her mind.

Words flashed across her mind, Cybertronian symbols that spelled out Pits, Kaon was next. Lurking in the very back of the twin's processors all of the time. Now her mind was leaching that pain against her will, filling her own spark with it.

She could hear sharp vents as the twins finally seemed to catch onto what she was doing. And then they were yelling at her to stop. But what they probably didn't understand was that she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried it wouldn't stop!

Her head was suddenly jerked back, brown optics were gazing down at her in a panic. "Lilyboo stop! Can't you hear me?! I said stop!" The words sounded distorted and far away, but the panic was sharp and easy to discern. "She can't stop! Oh shit! Ok calm down! You need to calm your emotions down or she'll faint!"

"I don't even know what the slag is going on!" Another voice practically snarled.

His rage coursed through her calling forth memories of being struck and whipped by enraged mechs. Whoever was holding her winced as their own fear spiked. "I said calm down! This is serious here! Empathic abilities affect and draw off of the emotions of others!"

Another snarl. Suddenly she was snatched up from wherever she was sitting and placed on something firm. Her eyes were blurry but she could make out a distinct gold shape above her. There was a loud humming sound close by, calming waves radiating from it. Instinctively she turned her head towards it and focused in on that, the rational part of her trying to urge her to calm herself the only way that she knew how. By latching onto a calming presence before she passed out. Experience had told her that the suffering didn't just stop as soon as you were rendered unconscious, you suffered from horrid nightmares...she didn't want that right now.

She reached for the humming sound; whoever was holding her pressed her so close to it that she could feel the heat off of it. Gradually the calming emotions seeped into her, slowly at first barely even putting a damper on her pain. But the longer she was pressed against it the more it helped. After a few moments she was able to breath properly, her mind was clearing from the fog she had been in, and the pain lessened gradually until the foreign pain finally left her for the most part.

Once it did she was left feeling relieved and mortified...she had violated the twin's privacy inadvertently while in her episode. Sides had told her that Sunny needed to come to her on his own and she had just...bypassed his right to talk to her on his own terms. Sure she hadn't seen everything but...

With some effort she managed to sit up on what she now knew to be Sunny's servo. Her chest was heaving painfully causing her to clutch at it to try and alleviate it. She slammed her eyes shut and swallowed the lump in her throat audibly. "I..." Shaky and scratchy, she cleared her throat to force these factors from her voice. "Sorry I..."

"Don't apologize Lilyboo. It isn't your fault...it was ours."

When she looked over at Annie she was peering at Sides and Sunny with a somber expression on her face. "No I should have had a better handle on it. I haven't lost control like that in a long time." She felt ashamed of herself...and she suddenly projected that to those gathered, which she did not mean to do.

Vents hitched. The twins's vents. There was a flash of red movement in her peripheral, she barely even registered it before Sides was in her face frowning at her. "Sweetspark enough. There's nothing to feel guilt or regret over. Like you said earlier you can't help the way you are born."

"But I...I got into your helms and saw things...I didn't meant to! It was an accident!"

He was suddenly touching her gently around her back optics alight with understanding and forgiveness. "I know. To be honest I was surprised to feel you sapping my emotions and projecting them back at me." He suddenly made a face and frowned. "What exactly did you see anyways? I thought that you were sapping emotions like a sponge like you said."

"I...mean that I...when I just did that it was like when Prowl glitches. My mind locks from the sensation of overload of information coming in and I can't stop in taking more, and sometimes when I do that my other skills kick on and I...well I sort of slid into your helms and sapped information from you the same way that I was doing it to Annie. So I saw things..."

Both mechs shared a look and turned back to her expectantly. "What kind of things?"

Her eyes drifted to anything but them. "A-are you mad at me?"

Sides nuzzled her suddenly, pressing his mouth plates over her face. When he drew back he was smiling softly at her. "No sweets we're not. It was an accident."

She looked up at Sunny for confirmation and he just nodded. Well at least they didn't hate her fragging guts for invading their privacy... Sighing, she leaned back against Sunny's chassis. "I saw you fighting in something called the pit." Both of them stiffened almost imperceptibly. They didn't look angry at her...just on edge. "It was awful...there were body parts laying all over the place. There were bots yelling to offline somebot and I saw myself leaned over a fallen mech, but it wasn't me it was Sunny." The frame she was leaning against stiffened even more as feelings of uncertainty and anxiousness wafted out from him. She gently patted his servo in a comforting motion. "It's ok Sunny. I've been there before myself...no judgments."

Silence... "I'm so sorry that you had to see that babe," Sunny murmured quietly.

"Me too." Sides shifted closer to her and nuzzled her again. It was like they were scared that she would think something terrible about them or something.

"Stop it." Both of them froze and drew back from her hastily. "Stop thinking that I'm going to hate you or something now. I didn't even see that much honestly, and from what I saw your lives were as fragged up as mine was so if you won't judge me for being a...a who- breeding tool." She corrected when they both gave her a menacing look. "Then I won't judge you for doing what you did." Well she probably wouldn't judge them regardless but if it made them feel better she would agree to it anyways.

They exchanged looks again, doing that silent twin conversation thing that Jezz and Annie did sometimes. This lasted for a good moment or two when they suddenly looked back at her intently. "Really?" Sunny asked in quiet disbelief.

"Really Sunny. I've been through horrible things too you know...I could never judge you for doing what you had to do to survive. And besides...you aren't dirty little street sparks anymore huh? You're fierce gladiators." She managed to force a rather convincing grin over the pain in her spark. "I think it's uh...pretty sexy if I do say so myself and I think I just did. I was way into that guy from 300 just saying."

The tense mood suddenly lifted when Sunny snorted at her. "I'm happy to hear that you like guys that run around in capes and kick people down holes."

"Mmmm mmmm the cape I could do without. What I'm saying is that I love the whole macho look. Not too muscled that it just looks gross, but definitely defined and built. You and Sides have that going for you just saying. Must be from all that fighting."

"Ahem...ummm I'm here too you know?" Annie suddenly spoke up from where she was sitting awkwardly at the end of the couch. When the three of them looked at her she shifted and coughed into her fist. "Yeah...maybe umm get a room next time?"

She sighed and pushed the still throbbing pain in her spark away for later. "Yeah sorry Anniepoo. We'll keep it in my quarters next time. Sorry for earlier by the way..."

Annie's head suddenly popped up in surprise. "What?! Why are you apologizing? You took the pain that I was feeling and absorbed it! Hell you even hurt yourself in the process and now you're apologizing to me?! I should be apologizing to you!"

"No Annie you didn't mean to do that either. I started absorbing it on my own without telling you...it's my fault. Old habits die hard I guess?" At the end of her somewhat question she forced another fake grin. Could they see through it? Maybe. But she didn't want to talk about it right now either.

Luckily she was saved by Annie's phone going off...aww slag they had forgotten to call Estelle. Annie managed to look sheepish while she answered her phone. "Hello sis what's up? What, where am I? Well that's classified information..." Sides snickered quietly and poked at her back gently. "Sis I'm fine. Tell Estelle to calm down okay?" Annie suddenly scowled and jumped up on the couch so that she could pace over the metal surface. "What?! NO! I said I'm fine! Look sis I'm seven hundred years old and I think that I can make my own decisions without consulting Estelle!"

She sighed and crawled over towards Sides who turned to her and grinned. When she was close enough she leaned forward on her hands and knees and pressed her lips against his mouth plates softly.

"Ewww get a room!" Annnie gagged. Jezz must have said something to her because she immediately went back to her conversation. "Look I'll be back for dinner! No tell her to calm down Jezz! If I was hurt or in trouble you would feel it! No! I'm not saying that I'm somewhere where I could get in trouble! I'm perfectly safe!"

Her tongue slipped out of her mouth to run over Sides mouth plates making him shudder. His own glossa slid out to touch her own even though it was big as her head at least. She giggled and hesitantly poked him back before she drew it back into her mouth. Sides tried to follow her with his glossa. Flirt...

Sunny snorted. "Cool it you two. Especially you Sides."

Sides pouted which looked so hilarious since he had his glossa pressed against her mouth. "Bphhh Summmphyyy..." He whined while poking his glossa harder into her mouth.

"Ewww seriously cut it out Li- I mean so sis I'll be- What?! No! I am so not with Lilyboo watching her make out with one of her robo boytoys! What you never said that she was? Oh crap!" Annie leapt off of the couch. "I'll be back in a sec Lilyboo." She mouthed before she left the room to finish her conversation.

As soon as she was out of sight she opened her mouth and bit Sides glossa.

Sunny smirked as Sides yelped and drew back from her with an angry pout. "Serves you right dumbaft."

"Owww...That was mean Lilyboo," Sides murmured sadly.

She groaned...not him too! "Don't call me that Sides. It's bad enough when Annie does it." Sides gave her his signature mischievous grin making her groan again. "Ok ok! I'm sorry for biting your glossa baby I won't do it again promise!"

Both of them raised optic ridges at her. "Oh so he gets a pet name and I don't?" Sunny pouted...actually fragging pouted!

"What? You want one?!" She shot back with a scowl on her lips. "Ok how about stud?" She snorted just thinking about calling Sunny stud...ego booster much? Like he needed one. "Or handsome?"

Sides pouted. "How come I get to be called baby and he gets to be called stud or handsome? I want one of those names!"

Her brow twitched...were they playing her right now? "Fine...Sunny is stud and you are handsome. How's that?"

They made a big show of thinking it over. "Nope I want to be stud!" Sides shook his helm at her.

"Fine then you can be stud. Sunny is handsome."

Sunny shook his helm. "But I want to be called stud. Pick something else for Sides."

She twitched again and smacked his chassis and Sides helm. "Fine then I have a better idea! From now on you will be known as Sunnykins, and Sidesypoo!"

Both of them looked absolutely horrified at the suggestions. "No! No! I can be stud and Sides can be handsome!" Sunny muttered in disgust.

"Ok Stud..."

Annie walked back in at that moment and hopped back onto the couch looking tired. "Who's Stud and what's going on?"

"Ummm we were coming up with pet names for Sunny and Sides...it was Stud and Handsome, or Sunnykins and Sidesypoo." She choked out a laugh as did Annie.

"Oh wow I would've definitely gone for Sidesypoo and Sunnykins!"

She shrugged. "Well they refused to be called that."

"Oh...lame. Anyways Jezz and Estelle were having a conniption fit so I had to tell them that I was only hanging out with you in your room and that you were escorting me through the base personally and stuff..." Annie huffed and started petting Aednat who was recharging peacefully next to her. "So overprotective...so what do you wanna do now that all the drama is over?"

"Ummm wanna watch The Proposal?" she suggested with a grin.

"Sure." Annie hopped down to set the movie up while she snuggled back down into Sunny's chassis while Sides leaned over his twin and somewhat snuggled her by laying his helm over her legs. She had to sit up and lean over it making her lower half the only thing touching Sunny, while her upper half was propped up over Sides. Hey it was comfy enough if she laid her head down on his audio horn.

And the best part of this whole mess? She was sitting there with her mechs who understood and accepted her fragged up self, and with her best friend who also understood and accepted her enough to face a situation that she was probably initially terrified of. All so that they could be together...

Even through all of the pain...things were looking up. All she had to do was keep fighting and maybe she would dig herself out of this hole that she was in permanently. If she only kept fighting...

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><p>R&amp;R! How did you all like Annie? She reminds me a lot of myself and my best friend...but I'm actually more like Lilah personality wise...all easily angered and humorous and stuff. Lol anyways R&amp;R!<p> 


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Reviews! Sorana3- Yeah she would but everyone gets along with Jazz lol...mostly. Answerthecall- Thanks! And yeah Annie is awesome! Satan'sLittleLamb- Yeah she sure is! Nice profile name btw lol. DinahDeath- She reminds me a lot of my friends too lol. And myself a little bit but I'm more like Lil. DarkshadowXsunny-sides- I love immaturity lol! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>Today was gearing up to be a very interesting day from the start. First thing in the morning Optimus had come to her to request her assistance in another retrieval party. The new arrivals were set to land sometime tonight in the desert near the outskirts of the city. Much closer this time thank Primus, because she didn't want to have to do another long distance drive.<p>

Of course she had agreed to go and had been surprised when Optimus told her that a relatively small group was going since there was only two signals. The group would consist of her, the twins, and Ratchet along with a platoon of human soldiers. Apparently the signals were pretty small so Optimus felt confident that the twins should be able to handle whoever it was with little effort. Which was probably true but they didn't need the ego boost of somebot telling them that.

After the Auto bot leader had left her she had received a call from Annie on the cell phone that Sides and Sunny had gotten for her for some fragging reason. Her friend had called to tell her that Jezz wanted to come out and see her soon, and for her to let them know a time that would be acceptable.

She had been so surprised that she had immediately told them that she would speak to Optimus as soon as possible. Now she couldn't deny that things were just being very weird. But she ignored it and packed a small emergency bag just in case something went wrong while they were gone. She also filled her portable subspace with some food rations, her FAL, a cybertanium combat knife that Ironhide had given her, and a change of clothes just in case.

They were set to leave soon so as soon as she had finished packing her belongings she left her room to meet up with the party in the main hangar. Sides and Sunny were closest to her when she stepped foot into the busy space so she immediately made a bee line for them and tapped on Sides pede.

A grin split his face plates when he looked down and saw her standing there. "Sweetspark we thought that you would never show! We're just getting ready to move out!"

"And Sides and I were just arguing over who gets to drive you to the landing zone," Sunny added in a grumble.

She pursed her lips and looked between the two of them closely. "Well I think that Sides drove me last time so it's only fair that Sunny drives me this time." Sides pouted at her to which she just gave him a stern look and shook her head once. "It's only fair handsome."

Using his new nickname made him get over his pout and grin at her. "But I get to drive you on the way back."

"Fine." She made her way over to Sunny as soon as she was done with Sides. "Ready Stud?"

A grunt was all she got in response as Sunny shifted his metal components and shrunk down to alt mode. His door opened for her and she climbed into the passenger seat and got settled in. She dropped her bag to the floor at her feet and raised her arms so that Sunny could clip her seatbelt in himself. She would do it herself but Sides and Sunny seemed to get pissy if she did anything by herself. So she let him clip her in without complaint.

After the soft click of her belt snapping into place, the engine suddenly roared to life in the space of an astrosecond. Sunny shifted before peeling out of the hangar without warning.

She leaned back in his seat and crossed her legs up under her. "Something bothering you Sunny?"

There was silence for a moment before he responded. "No not really. I was just...thinking about something that I wanted to talk to you about."

Her body immediately stiffened as her mind conjured up the worst possible scenario, which was him breaking up with her. "Like what Sunny? Is-is it something bad?" Were they finally realizing how much of a waste of time it was to be with her? Were they finally figuring out just how very messed up she was? Did they not want to put forth the effort to-!

"Stop it," Sunny grumbled irritably. "Stop jumping to conclusions baby, it isn't anything bad that I wanted to talk about."

A big breath escaped from her mouth when he said that it wasn't anything bad. But then she perked up and sat forward a little bit more in her seat. "Then what?"

Her golden boyfriend stayed silent for several long moments as the winding sand desert passed by outside his windows. The silence dragged on for so long that she was sure that he wasn't even going to answer so she turned and looked out the window and tried to ignore the small pang of hurt that his silence caused her. Like she needed more pain on top of what she already was dealing with, what with her past which had been forcefully slammed into her face.

"I wanted to...tell you some things about my past...about Sides too."

Her body snapped back around towards the speakers instantly. "What?" Had she really heard him right? He-he wanted to talk to her about it? She didn't have to wait forever for him to get over himself enough to bring his past up? Wow...today was really turning into one big surprise after another. She sobered and leaned back in her seat to hide her enthusiasm. "Ok Sunny I'll listen. You can stop whenever you want to."

The frame around her rumbled in what she discerned as a small grunt. "Ok...I'm not as good with words as Sides is so I'll do my best." She nodded to tell him to continue. And he did. "Sides and I were born in Kaon not too long before the war started. Our creators were killed shortly after the war started when we were still younglings so we ended up on the streets with nothing. We took to stealing Energon, anything that we could get our servos on to stay alive, but it was still hard to get by. If it wasn't the lack of Energon that was making life hard, it was the bots wandering around on the streets as well. Most were crazy and they took to beating and raping younglings on the street. So Sides and I had to fight a lot just to survive all of that..."

"Sunny..." She murmured while patting his seat comfortingly. Her mouth snapped shut with an audible click, he needed to get this out and she would listen. They had listened for her...she would do the same.

"One day I found Sides getting beaten by one of the bigger mechs roaming the streets of Kaon. If I hadn't done something I think he would have forced Sides to face...so I attacked him. I beat him to death with my bare servos and I didn't feel any remorse for doing it to save my brother."

His frame shifted again. Another sigh or a grumble she wasn't sure. What she was sure of was that even with her abilities dampened she could feel his pain fairly clearly. That meant that it had to be strong to get through her block, or maybe it was that she was so close to him. Whatever the case she focused and sent a wave of comfort back to him to soothe his suffering.

There was a brief silence. "Thanks babe..."

"You're welcome Sunny. Now continue if you want to." She patted his seat and never stopped sending waves of calming and comfort to him. It was the least that she could do for him after all that he had done for her.

"Right. Well a gladiator from the pits saw what had happened...and apparently Sides had put in a pretty good fight before I had got there, there was another mech offlined further down the alley that I just hadn't seen at first. Anyways the gladiator, designation Gigashot, told us that we should fight in the pits. He said that we would make enough credits to survive if we could make it through the fights."

When he went silent again she didn't prompt him to say anything, knowing that he needed his time to sort things out in his helm. She was a very patient femme, when it came to these two that is, so she just waited and kept sending those numbing feelings to him.

"At first Sides didn't want to do it...he was scared. So I told him that I would do it myself so that he didn't have to. I told him that he could go to the academy and make something of himself since he was always smarter than most bots you know? But he refused to go without me, and eventually he decided to fight too if only to be there with me. No matter how many times I told him to make something more of himself, he refused. So we ended up fighting together in the pits for several millennia."

"The first few fights are the hardest, the scariest, and if you're lucky you come out of it half dead instead of being actually dead. It was like that for us for the first few vorns. Always making it out by some miracle, honing our skills in life or death situations. But that's the way to do it baby. You learn more under duress when it comes to battle; Sides and I learned that very early on."

"After a few vorns we had become skilled enough to fight most of the gladiators one on one with little effort. We earned the name Terror Twins by the havoc that we brought down on the other gladiators...and we both learned to like fighting and killing. We had to become what we are to preserve ourselves, to not feel the guilt that came with offlining bot after bot, cycle after cycle... It was never as easy for Sides to do as it was for me. In fact after a few vorns I was completely remorseless, I only lived to fight and kill for myself and Sides."

"I think that it was sort of like a downward spiral. One day I woke up and I felt like slag about killing that mech last cycle, and the next day I woke up and I decided that I couldn't let myself feel like that anymore. So I made myself like it...and then I really did start liking it."

His voice grew dark sending shivers down her spine. When he got intense her body just reacted and nothing that she could do would stop it.

"I didn't regard life with anything more than cold optics and a hate filled spark...and I think that I dragged Sides down with me into that. But he was always fighting it...and failing. He didn't want to become a complete monster like I was, he only killed when he had to and he didn't enjoy it. But as more time went by that part of him slowly died out, he started to enjoy the death too. Not as much as I did, but enough that he was labelled a monster as well. But I think that that part of our spark was always there fighting its way back to the surface. And when we met you...for the first time in so long, I wanted to do something more than killing."

She smiled softly as adoration coursed through him and into her, chasing away a majority of the pain that she was still dulling down for him. "Well for what it's worth Stud, it was the same for me when I met you two. Except for the whole sociopathic killing thing, I just meant the whole fighting to find a part of yourself part. So I should be thanking you for helping me get over my own fears and demons...some of them anyways." She added quietly at the end as she leaned down over his center console and pressed her face into his smooth interior. Her fingers stroked the expensive material soothingly.

The frame beneath her shifted again, this time in a purr. "You're welcome baby. And I uhh...you know I appreciate you putting up with me. I know that it can't be easy all of the time, and it's probably a real slagging glitch to deal with both of us when we fly into one of our rages, or when we drag you into a stupid prank or something. But we both appreciate how much effort and dedication you are willing to put into this. No one ever really wanted to commit to us before, and to be honest we never really wanted that either. It feels good to have a femme that I'm serious about."

A soft giggle escaped her mouth; she turned and pressed her lips against the material of Sunny's interior making his entire frame shudder. "Same. Only for me it's nice to have a mech that is serious about me as well."

"We are. Don't ever doubt that."

"I won't." How could she ever forget the trust that he had shown her today in telling her about their past? Was trust not a true measure of love? Was it even possible to doubt either of them now?

You know how sometimes your mind will cloud into a fog when you're too deep in thought? Well that was what she was experiencing right now, images of the kind of future that she wanted with Sunny and Sides. Sunny s sparkling sitting in her lap, the sparklings that she wanted to have, the three of them interfacing and her not being afraid of it, sparkbonding, sparkmerging, living thousands of years together. All things that she truly wanted now. If only she could get over her past enough to allow the sparkmerging, interfacing, and subsequent bonding process. She just had to try and get over it...for them.

The fog in her mind was suddenly forcefully slammed aside by a sharp prickling sensation. She sat bolt upright in her seat as her powers flared to life trying to pinpoint where exactly the pods were. Electrical impulses assaulted her senses, being quickly and effectively rationalized by her high functioning brain, and giving her a detailed idea of what was going on far beyond the others sight.

While she was doing this Sunny must have shifted without her knowledge, because the next thing she knew she was sitting on his shoulder and Ratchet and Sides were watching her from directly in front of her.

Only one small part of her mind took notice of all of this, the rest was honing in on the approaching signatures. Both were coming in fast from the west...which meant that they would swoop in low and land right...where they were standing. "Oh slag move! Move! Move!" The three mechs looked at each other in surprise, only snapping into action when Sunny finally caught sight of the bright orbs of light shooting down from the sky, straight towards them.

Comical expressions of, 'oh shit', exploded across each mech's face plates as they all finally turned and took off running in the opposite direction. They barely made it out of the place of impact before the pods impacted and exploded taking half of the shitty desert area with them.

Sunny, and Sides threw themselves behind a small rocky outcropping to avoid a shower of debris pelting their armor. She could hear the sound of debris pelting the hard surface over and over again, dirt flew up and hit her hair and clothes, she even inhaled some of it and started hacking it up. "Frag me sideways!" she coughed out while she beat her chest with her fist.

Sides shifted closer to block her in and keep debris out, caging her in against Sunny's chassis where she was being pinned by the golden mech's large servo.

Now she could hear the debris bouncing off of Sides armor. At least she could breathe a little easier. She wanted to laugh because she could distinctly hear Sunny muttering that he was getting all dirty and nasty, and how his finish would take hours to buff out. Figures. They had just been almost nailed by a Cybertronian pod and all he cared about was his finish.

All too soon the shower of rocks and slag died down. Sides pulled back and peered over the top of the outcropping hesitantly.

"Are you all right babe?" Sunny murmured while his twin was playing super spy or something.

"Yeah. Just dirty." Her nose wrinkled up when some of her hair fell over her shoulder and it was coated in sand...she would have to shower when she got back to base. But for now she turned her attention to the landing site.

She focused her senses in on the two signatures and immediately a tidal wave of sensations and information came barreling back at her. Her head started to ache from sorting it all so fast, but she ignored it like she always did and focused on discerning what she could.

One mech, and one femme. The mech appeared to be Praxian, for some reason he was thinking over Praxian courting rituals, and bets. The other signal was a femme as she had already deduced, what she got next was that this femme was extremely self-centered, conniving, and ruthless. And she already didn't like her. The mech seemed amiable, like an older brother. She could see herself getting along okay with him. The femme...not so much.

What was important was that from what she could gather they were Auto bots. "It's safe Sunny, they're Autobots."

"Right." Both of them rose to their pedes and made their way out from behind the outcropping towards the two figures that were emerging from their pods.

Her eyes honed in on each of their appearances as she was carted closer. The mech was red and blue like Optimus, only he had the Praxian wings and chevron, the only real difference was that his chevron were gold instead of red like Prowl and Bluestreak's. He had a relaxed easy going look to him, but she could tell that that was all...real and yet it was like a mask that he would use to get closer to others. But he would never get her with it...

"Smokey!" Sides suddenly exclaimed once they were close enough to the other mech and femme.

The Praxian mech snapped his helm up and grinned at Sides amiably as they approached. "Sideswipe! Primus it's good to see another fun loving mech like myself here!"

The two of them clapped each other on the shoulders like males tended to do while chatting, catching up probably. While they were doing that she looked over towards the femme to see her already being stared at by the light green femme.

She was of a smaller build then the mechs gathered obviously, but she was still a good ten feet taller than Arcee. Her optics were a deep icy blue accentuated by sleek high cheek plates, and perfectly melded mouth plates. Yup she was vain about her looks... Her chassis was well accentuated leading down to a slim waist, a nice rounded aft, and lean long legs.

And those icy blue optics were staring at her angrily for some reason. She lifted a brow and shook her head slowly in a 'wtf is your problem' motion. It only served to anger the other femme more, but she didn't bother delving anymore with her powers because her head was aching pretty bad.

But apparently the femme didn't like to be ignored because the next moment she spoke up in a fake sugary voice...that made her want to gag. "Oh isn't this cute? Sunstreaker the famous Autobot frontliner took a little organic as a pet?"

All optics, including Ratchet's who had just made his way over, turned to the other femme. Sides and Sunny actually cringed at the very sight of her, and Ratchet muttered some choice curse words under his breath.

Sides shifted and scratched the back of his helm nervously. "Hey Limelight...how's it going?"

The femme known as Limelight smiled a sugary fake smile and pointed at her. "Oh it would be going fine if Sunstreaker wasn't touching one of those things. Now that I'm here that's going to have to stop you know? I won't have my mechs consorting with an organic."

Her jaw dropped. Her mechs?! Anger suddenly coursed through her entire body as her spark gave a furious pulse. "Oh no no no!" She cut the other femme off mid rant and pointed at Sides and Sunny. "You see these two are MINE. Not yours. Get over yourself and move on before you make a fool of yourself."

"Ouch," Sides snickered.

Limelight looked gobsmacked for a fraction of an astrosecond, so quick that she had to wonder if the expression had even really been there, then her face twisted into an angry scowl. "Excuse me meatsack? Did you just shoot your mouth off to me?"

Everybot tensed when Limelight took a threatening step forward, except for her. She just stared impassively at the other femme's approach. "Yes. Yes I did. And my name is not meatsack you used up scraggly aft glitch, it's Lilah. And yes the twins are mine by their choice, they chose me."

"No that's impossible. We've been-" Limelight started but was suddenly cut off by Sunny.

"Fragging. We've been fragging you for a few vorns...well not currently but we were. But that's all that it was for us Limelight, a quick easy frag. We never had feelings for you." He told her in a voice filled with irritation. Obviously Sunny wasn't too happy to have Limelight here.

Limelight froze in her tracks and sneered at her. "And what? Are you fragging this thing too? What? Are you going to sate your desires on her before moving onto something else like you always do? I mean you can't be thinking about bonding to her, organics can't sparkbond Sunstreaker." Her face suddenly turned smug as she stepped forward and pressed a delicate servo again Sunny's chassis.

She stiffened and glared at both the offending servo, and the next words that came out of the glitches mouth pates.

"You'll use her then toss her aside like you always do. Then you'll come back to me because I'm the only bot that knows how to sate your desires completely... So I'll wait for you to get over the fleshy. Don't keep me waiting too long." With that Limelight released Sunny and turned to saunter off into the trees.

She glared at her turned back and couldn't control the burst of sheer rage that resonated from her spark. "At least I'm not an easy glitch! And anybot with a processor would choose anything organic or not over a femme that openly admits that she's a slut."

Limelight froze and threw a scalding glare over her shoulder. Her engines hitched and her cooling fans suddenly kicked on to expel heat from her chassis. "Any mech would choose a femme that wasn't so scarred up that she looked like one of Scalpel and Shockwave's experiments."

She flinched and Sunny placed a servo on her to comfort her, but she barely felt it really. All she could think about was what she would do if they saw her and were too disgusted to actually go through with the bond. Her uncertainty quickly turned to anger at herself for letting that glitch get to her. She shook all the negative thoughts off as the group started in the direction that Limelight had gone in. But deep in her spark she knew that she would be bothered by what the other femme had said for some time to come.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

"So Smokey this is Lilah. Lilah this is Smokescreen he's the Autobot Psychologist and older sibling of Bluestreak and Prowl." Sideswipe introduced his and Sunny's femme to their old friend as they all sat around to have Energon in the rec room after returning from the retrieval.

Lilah who had been mostly silent since the encounter with Limelight earlier observed Smokey curiously. Smokey did the same thing to her even going so far as to lean in close to her face and stare her down. And they just sat like that staring at each other without twitching or saying a word for what felt like an entire joor, but was actually a breem or so.

Finally Lilah broke the silence by pointing at Smokey's chevron. "I like that color better than the red," she commented quietly.

Smokey grinned at her and leaned down on his servos so that he was optic level with her. "Why thank you little sweetspark. I know that I'm the best looking of the three brothers, but it feels great to have such a pretty little thing to compliment me."

"Smokey...she's taken," Sunny muttered darkly because of the sharp glint in the Auto bot psychologist's optics.

"By who?" Smokey grinned up at them then slowly, deliberately, stroked Lil's aft making her squeak.

Sunny was over the table so fast that the whole thing toppled over from his mad dash to strangle Smokescreen. He had to grab Lil to prevent her from being tossed to the ground, or crushed by his twin's flailing limbs.

He held her against him as Sunny literally strangled Smokey and threatened him with death if he ever touched their femme's aft again. Smokey was just laughing and not attempting to fight back at all. What a slagging glitch helm.

"I knew it! I fragging knew it!" Smokey exclaimed while forcing Sunny's servos from around his neck so that he could sit up and push Sunny back as well. He got to his pedes and grinned at Lil's pouting form. "I should've bet that Sides and Sunny would fall for an organic!"

"Well she's not a full blooded organic Smokey," he murmured as he stroked Lil's hair affectionately. "She's a hybrid. So technically she has a spark...and a lengthened life span. Ratchet actually estimates it to be comparable to ours."

"A hybrid?" Smokey echoed grinning even wider.

"Yeah a hybrid...our hybrid," Sunny hissed in a threatening tone.

"Cool. Cool. I was only playing with you earlier Sunny. Sorry for touching your aft little sweets." Smokey retook his seat after fixing the table that Sunny had knocked over. Once he was seated he gestured for him to put Lil down so he did before taking his own seat. "So Lilah how did you manage to win the twins over? I mean they love fragging as much as the next mech but they never commit. Poor Limelight, Primus bless her glitched up spark, was their pleasurebot for vorns. She wanted commitment, they didn't wanna give it. End of story. Yet here you are with them wrapped around those little servos of yours. What's up with that?"

Lil tilted her head to the side and shrugged nonchalantly. "Ummm I'm a glitch and they're into that?"

Another grin from Smokey along with a raised optic ridge. "Oh? Limelight's a glitch too and they weren't too into that. So why are they really into you and not Limelight?"

"Cause she's a self-centered glitch and Sunny's already self-centered enough for the entire universe," Lil deadpanned.

Both he and Smokey busted out laughing at the completely serious way that she said that, and the subsequent glare that Sunny gave her. "Oh Primus I am going to get along just great with this femme Sides! You and Sunny always did know how to pick em!"

He slapped his servo against Smokey's. "Oh yeah we're good. Well I'm good because I kinda sorta chose her first."

Smokey raised an optic ridge. "Kinda sorta? What the slag does that mean? You can't be indecisive in a committed relationship Sides."

He stiffened when Lil turned to look at him strangely. "I'm not! What I'm saying is that at first I didn't know what exactly I felt for her. I just knew that I liked her, not because I wanted to face her, but because I genuinely liked her. And that like grew into something more..."

"Like...?" Smokey pressed with a grin.

"I...we...you know?"

"No I don't and I don't think that she does either." Smokey leaned down next to Lil and poked her stomach gently. "Do you know what they feel for you Lily?"

Lil stiffened and batted his digit away. "Ummm well I would hope that they love me like I love them. But in my experience males or mechs don't like to be rushed into saying things like that. They can say it when they're ready, if they're ever ready."

"The way you say that makes it sound like you don't know whether to expect them to say it or not."

She looked up at Smokey's comment and gestured him closer to her. "Smokescreen I know what you're doing. I knew before they even told me that you were a real skilled talker...stop fishing. If you want to ask me serious questions that do not pertain to my relationship with the twins please go ahead. But if you want to keep pressing them then I will zap your interface panel until you become a femme."

Both they, and Smokey flinched back just slightly because of the no nonsense tone that let them know that she was being serious. He smiled nervously and shrugged his shoulder at Smokey's surprised look. "She uhh has anger issues like Sunny does."

"Clearly."

"Yeah but she's also funny like me so it evens itself out." He shrugged.

Lil was suddenly lifted from the table by their friend. "HEY! PUT ME DOWN BEFORE I REWIRE YOUR CANNONS SO THAT THEY FIRE PLASMA BURSTS UP YOUR AFTPIPE!"

**'That was creative,'** Sunny snorted through the bond.

**'Yeah I wonder if she can actually do that?'**

**'I don't want to know. I like my aftpipe intact.'** Sunny shuddered. Actually shuddered.

If he didn't know any better he would think that Lil was charming Smokey already. Wait he was pretty sure that she was. Smokey was a psychologist after all, he liked emotionally charged bots because he could psycho analyze them all cycle every cycle. It satisfied his very curious and inquisitive personality.

And Smokey was grinning like a sparkling that had just been given his first Energon candy. "So aggressive! I can see why the Terror Twins like you! Terse and aggressive enough to put Sunstreaker on his pede tips, but also gentle and humorous like Sideswipe. You possess both of their strongest traits and yet...you seem to possess a softness that neither of them have. Well you are a femme so that is to be expected, however I also sense anguish in you. Perhaps you have bonded not only through the similarities that you three possess, but also because your sparks sense the pain that you have all been through."

She stopped squirming relatively quickly after he started analyzing her, and she was now just hanging there limply, staring at him.

Smokey only kept his optics trained on hers. "Does that accurately summarize what happened here?"

Lil didn't respond so Smokey sat her down on the table top. As soon as her feet touched the table she scrambled over and vaulted up to sit on his shoulder.

Smokey watched her make her escape impassively before turning stern optics on them.** 'If you love her then why don't you tell her? It can only strengthen the bond between you three to tell her that,'** he snapped over the com link.

He frowned. **'Well I did...we did kind of tell her but she may or may not have been falling into recharge when we said it.'**

Smokey frowned at him and Sunny deeply for a moment then suddenly grinned. **'Ok I have a bet for you.'**

Both he and Sunny stiffened. **'A bet?'**

**'Yeah a bet. I bet that you to tell her how you feel before the cycle is over.'**

**'And if we don't?'** Sunny muttered questioningly.

Smokey grinned wider and his optics drifted to the femme sitting on his shoulder. **'Then I get to take her out for a drive...a date.'**

There was a stunned sort of silence over the com link and through their bond. Neither he nor Sunny had been expecting a price like this if they refused to say what was in their sparks this cycle. The anger came racing through both ends of the bond almost immediately following the first stunned silence. Oh pit no! No way was Smokey getting their femme alone on a date.

Almost like he had known exactly what they were thinking Smokey grinned.** 'Then you better do it...'**

He sneered at his old friend and stood from the table. **'Fine. But we're not going to do it here. She deserves more than a forced confession from a bet.'**

**'Record it so I can see.'** Smokey nodded once and waved at Lil before they turned and left the room.

"Where are we going?"

"For a drive...so that Sunny and I can tell you something." He stepped into the main hangar and shifted to his alt mode, conforming his parts around the small femme so that she ended up seated comfortably in his driver's seat.

Sunny did the same, minus the having to worry about crushing their femme part, and they both took off out of the main hangar of the NEST base. There was a spot that Bee's human Sam liked to take Mikaela, something about it being scenic and pretty. It was relatively close to the base as well.

While he was driving he kept quiet so that he could think over what exactly he was supposed to say to her. What about Sunny? What would Sunny say to her? Probably something along the lines of, 'hey baby Smokey knew that we were in love with you and he bet us to tell you so we love you.' Yeah that was really romantic.

Sunny sent him a disgruntled feeling over the bond but otherwise did not comment.

Which was a good thing because they had pulled up to the small cliff where a lone tree sat. The spot where Sam liked to take Mikaela to make out or whatever the humans called it. It really was very pretty though since it was elevated above the local landscape giving a better view of the stars and the moon. The very ground seemed to reflect the pale light of the moon's bright glow. Yeah this was as good a spot as they could find on such short notice.

He slowly slid to a stop and stalled his transformation protocols so that he could gather his thoughts. This was a new place for him, foreign territory for him and Sunny, and quite frankly very scary to be at after being players for so long. Lil deserved so much better than them after all that she had been through, but they were selfish and they wanted her.

They loved her and they knew it so why was it so hard to say that? It certainly wasn't hard for her to say it to them. Well he recalled Sunny telling her that he loved her when the subject of their feelings had first come up, but he had been so embarrassed that he had tried to deny it. Should he have just agreed with it back then even though he hadn't really been sure?

It only took his processor a minute to shoot that down. You should not tell the femme that you wanted to spend the rest of your days with that you loved her when you weren't sure about it yourself. But now he was sure, Sunny was sure. So what was holding him back?

There was a gentle nudge over the bond. Sunny wanted him to shift to bipedal mode so he did, parts shifting back around his seats which were actually his servos, until his femme was cradled safely in them. He heard Sunny do the same and felt him come to stand beside and just slightly behind him.

Both of them just stared at her, reflecting the different ways that they saw her through their twin bond, every instance when she seemed to shine and look so different in each other s optics... They both saw her as some sort of goddess, beautiful and perfect. Their sparks seemed to reach out and call for hers simultaneously. That was how they knew that this was real, that they were supposed to be here. When two sparks called for one another like this it meant that they were true sparkmates. Maybe that was why this was so scary.

Because it meant that she was the femme that Primus himself had chosen for them. It meant that she would complete them in a way that no other femme could, it was more intense than anything they had felt before. That was why it was so frightening. Because this could not be fought or stopped.

With exaggerated slow movements he leaned down and sat Lil on the ground and knelt before her, gesturing Sunny to do the same. When his twin knelt down beside him he turned his optics solely on her giving her his full attention as his spark lurched in anticipation and nervousness tinged with a sort of giddiness. "Lil I...Sunny and I are-were players for a long time."

Sunny turned and glared at him. **'What kind of confession are you trying to do?'**

He ignored him and continued. "But those days are over now. We have already pledged to be faithful to you and you only so...the only thing left to do is to tell you exactly what we feel for you."

She stiffened and raised a servo to clutch at her chest over where her spark was furiously thrumming.

His mouth opened and closed several times as his own spark sped up until it was thrumming furiously as well. "Sweetspark Sunny and I...we...we've said this once when you were in recharge but..." Why was it so fragging hard to say it?!

Lil smiled softly and lifted a servo to stop him. "Sides you never have to feel pressured to tell me anything. I know that-"

"No! Lil just let me say this okay?! I have to get it off my chassis, and Sunny does too!" He reached out and wrapped a single digit around her servo, the only way that they could hold hands like this, and met her optics square. "Sunny and I are narcissists, we're crazy killing machines, and we don't deserve you! But Lilah we've never been more serious about anything than you, not even fighting!"

Sunny reached out and repeated his action on her other servo tugging it from her chest and wrapping his own digit around her servo. His optics met hers and he offered her a loving smile, not a smirk, a real genuine smile. "He's right," he murmured at her shocked look.

"Right? I am right! Sunny and I would fight to the ends of the galaxies for you and we haven't even known you that long! We'd kill anybot that tried to take you from us and we'll do our best to give you everything that you desire. And we...we'll do all of this because we..." His vocalizer froze for a moment but he forced it to work so that he could say what he needed to say. "Because we love you sweetspark. I think that we have since the first time that we met; it was just that circumstances made it hard for us to recognize it."

Tears gathered in her optics. "Sides? I..."

"We love you. We have since the beginning even if Sunny wanted to be difficult about it."

"Hey I got over it right? I love her too," Sunny grumbled.

The tears spilled down over her cheeks making him think that he had done something wrong. Were femmes supposed to cry when their intendeds declared that they loved them? "Sweetspark did we say something wrong?"

She hiccupped and shook her head slowly. "No...it's just that the only time that Demetri ever said that to me was when he was trying to get me to interface with him. He never said it just because he felt like it, he only ever said it to get what he wanted...and you just said it without wanting anything back."

The sudden need to maim or killed welled up inside of him again when he heard what she had to say about that worthless excuse for a mech. A mech who claimed to love Lilah, yet only ever said the words to get what he wanted. "We would never say something like that just to get something out of you baby. Love doesn't work like that."

"Not that that sorry excuse for a mech ever really loved you. Sounds to me like he's a piece of slag that only uses femmes to get what he wants. But we would never ask something like that of you," Sunny muttered darkly sending images of how he would like to tear the afthole apart piece by piece.

She suddenly choked out a sob and lunged at him. "You guys are turning me into a blubbering girly girl you slagging fraggers!" He brought her up to his chassis and held her there while she cried. "I love you too. Both of you! I don't care if you're completely fragging insane! You're my crazy slaggers and that's good enough for me!"

Sunny crooned at her leaning down to nuzzle her hair and purr into her ear. She turned to him and brought him into the hug as well pressing his twin's face plates against his chassis and her face. She kissed Sunny suddenly, right on the mouth plates while her servos trailed over his chassis lovingly.

He leaned down and nudged her and she released Sunny to turn and press her lips to his mouth components. It didn't matter that her Energon tears were leaving streaks on his face plates and chassis. All that mattered was that she had truly reciprocated their feelings when they had revealed them.

And he relished in the feel of her soft warm organic lips on his own solid metal ones. It didn't even matter that her mouth was too small to ever fit completely into one of their kisses, it felt better than any full sized femme that he had ever kissed. He would do whatever it took to make sure that she knew that they were not wanting for anybot else. Because nobot else would ever have a hold on their spark like she did.

Every bit of who they were, every ability that they had would be utilized to the fullest to fulfill every one of her desires. Because she had truly accepted them and nobot else had ever done that before.

And no amount of grateful words could ever express the way that made them feel. So he settled for letting her feel it through his ministrations. Gentle digits caressing her back, gentle nips to the soft expanse of her neck. Sunny joined in and dragged his glossa up her neck on the other side before nibbling on her ear like it was a piece of breakable glass.

Lil sighed softly and offered them a watery smile. "As much as I love you two, I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. Can we wait?"

His processor cleared itself of the haze that he had been in and he found himself mouthing at her shoulder joint, quite an achievement considering how big they were compared to her. But then he remembered her past, the pain she had been through, and he drew back so as not to scare her. "Of course sweetspark. We'll wait as long as it takes...we have our servos after all." He grinned at her startled gasp.

Sunny pulled back and grinned too. "He's right baby. Our servos will work until you're ready...besides I don't think our rods will fit in you like this...they're bigger than you are."

Lil flushed a deep blue. "Perverts," she pouted.

The tense atmosphere suddenly lifted when he and Sunny busted out laughing. Oh how they loved their little hybrid femme! Now all they had to do was think of ways to show her every cycle for the rest of their long lives.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! I wanted a real confession from Sunny and Sides so here you go! Lots of stuff to come still...I don't know exactly how long I plan on making this story, still storming up ideas. Hardest part so far is fillers ugh! Anyways R&amp;R and I'll see you next time!<p> 


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

So quick question! Does anyone want to beta this story? I need someone to go over the previous chapters for any mistakes that I may have missed, and also to help edit new chapters! Let me know! I honestly don't know if I'll be able to stop updating this until I finish it, I've even put off my other stories for it lol. Anyways I do not own transformers! First part is a dream sequence that is pretty graphic skip if you wish!

* * *

><p>Her small body was strapped down, stomach cut open...when she looked down she could see her circuits and her dull silver organs moving. She could even see the light from her spark reflecting off of the surface of her stomach.<p>

But her eyes were trained more on the small bundle of wires squirming around in her gestation sack. All she could focus on over the pain, the fear, and the horror, was that small bundle that she wanted so much to reach out and take into her arms. The cuffs prevented her from doing that.

They prevented her from doing anything when Burstimpact appeared with a small scalpel which he brought to her gestation sack. She thrashed harder against her restraints and tried to flail her body away from the deadly servos that were trying to take her sparkling away from her.

He only activated the chest restraints as well to keep her from moving and cut into her sack, reaching in through the small incision he grabbed a hold of the sparkling that he had sired.

She cried out in pain and fear as she watched her sparkling being pulled from her body. Wide red optics stared back at her, panicked chirps and whirs filled the air, tiny servos were reaching for her, for the bond that had already been established between them. A desperate plea that she tried to answer with everything in her.

Her little one was placed on a flat metal table next to a tool tray with various dissection tools and equipment. "Well then...let's see if you're different than the last ones," Burstimpact sneered down at the still trilling sparkling.

"Give him to me!" she cried out and thrashed against her restraints even knowing her wounds were still wide open. Energon and blood spewed from the wounds as pain shot through every pain receptor in her body. But she didn't care about any of it. All she wanted was to get to her sparkling who was crying for her.

Her eyes met his sire's dark red optics, and he deliberately raised a servo with a serrated scalpel and brought it down on the still thrashing sparkling.

Her sparkling thrashed and trilled a shrill pain filled scream.

* * *

><p>"NOOOOOOO!" She jolted up out of the dream that she had been trapped in wildly glancing around the room for her sparkling and his sire. But there was nothing save for the quiet darkness of her room. No chains, no blood, no screaming.<p>

She curled over herself into a ball and shook as tracks of Energon tears spilled down over her cheeks. Her sparklings...all she wanted was to know that they were okay. She wanted to know that Primus was taking good care of them, that he hadn't forsaken them because of the monster that their mother was. And she was a monster despite what anybot else thought...a worthless monster that didn't deserve the love she was now being almost drowned in. A love that she was selfish enough to reach out and take anyways...when her sparklings had never even had the same chance.

There was a panicked knocking on her door making her look up; her eyes caught the sleeping medicine that Ratchet had made for her before it landed on the door. It wasn't strong enough to make her forget about the past. "Who is it?" She called in a dry raspy voice.

"It's Sunny. Can you open the door babe?"

Slowly she got off of her bed and made her way over to open the door that separated her room from theirs. It slid open revealing Sunny's worried face plates with Sides looming over his shoulder with a worried look of his own on his face plates. "Ummm did I wake you?" she asked guiltily.

Sunny reached for her and pulled her up from the ground. "Yeah but that's not important. Are you okay? You were screaming really loud." His optics searched her entire frame, even going so far as to light up and do a base level medical scan which was all that bots who were not trained medics could do.

"Yeah...just a nightmare Sunny. Looks like Ratchet's medicine wasn't strong enough to knock me out enough to stop the nightmares," she joked quietly. It wasn't a joking matter and she knew it, but she didn't want to push her pain off on them every time she had a nightmare, or when she had something happen that upset her. They were so busy fighting all of the time; they didn't need to be worrying constantly over her.

Both of them frowned, more like scowled in Sunny's case. Sides leaned in and peered around her door frame optics landing on her nightstand where her medicine was. "So you did take it sweetspark and it didn't help you recharge easier?"

The way he asked it let her know that it was not so much a question as a statement. "Sometimes it helps...just not every night. I doubt that there is a kind of medicine that can help me sleep peacefully every night..."

Images just kept flashing through her head over and over again. One memory, one nightmare, opening up every memory of being in that place. Every instance that she had failed to protect her sparklings, every instance where she had watched the light fade from their optics, every instance where their protoforms had been torn apart for Primus knew what. All while she watched. Dozens of sparklings...lost to experimentation. Alive and dead.

It made her feel so fragging weak! All she wanted to do was stop being strong for even a moment and just cry about it, really cry without the fear that somebot was watching and judging her! Because opening up like that in front of others was showing weakness, and weakness got yourself and others killed. It didn't matter that she was here with the twins, the only bots that she felt that she could truly trust...she didn't want to make them worry. She didn't want them to see that the strong mask was just a mask hiding a weak scared girl. A girl who couldn't truly forget about the past no matter how many smiles she managed to find or force. Her spark was theirs but her mind wanted to run to keep her pain and secrets hidden so that nobot ever found out about them.

That made her feel guilty, that a part of herself was balking back away from them. And she didn't truly understand why it was doing it. What she did know was that she was scared of them knowing everything in complete detail. What if they decided that she wasn't strong enough to protect any sparklings that they would have? What if they still wanted her but they didn't want sparklings once they sparkmerged and saw everything?

Something gently nudged her cheek startling her. She stiffened and looked up at Sunny tiredly. "Yeah?"

He raised an optic ridge at her. "I asked if you wanted to stay with Sides and I tonight?"

"What time is it?"

Optics dulled for an astrosecond before he replied. "Two thirty."

"And I don't suppose you'll just let me stay awake and watch movies by myself or something right?" she remarked dryly, earning herself warning looks from the both of them. Of course not. "Fine then but you really need to like set up a cushioned part in the middle of that berth or something cause your chassis aren't the most comfortable things to sleep on for eight hours."

Sides grinned. "We'll talk to Jacky about it tomorrow!" He snatched her from Sunny and hurried back over to their berth, tossing himself onto it like a reckless teenager. It only took him a moment to get comfortable then he placed her gently on his chassis over his spark chamber.

The berth shook when Sunny climbed up onto it, while she was listening to the faint humming sound of Sides spark. The sound of a thrumming spark always soothed her nightmares when she was little... For a brief moment she allowed herself to picture Moondancer's face when she too had held her like this after a nightmare. Her eyes welled up with tears but she fought them back so that they didn't fall and smear all over Sideswipe's chassis.

Her body slowly started relaxing as her spark started purring happily in contentment. Or as close as it could be after having a nightmare like that, and when another servo started gently trailing down her back she relaxed the rest of the way. With these two she was safe...maybe even from her nightmares. At least she could hope right?

"Do you want to talk about it?" A soft rumbling shook her out of the almost doze that she was moments away from falling into.

She slowly tilted her head up to meet Sides optics and raised a brow at him. Of all the things that she had been expecting, him to ask her if she wanted to talk about it was not one of them. Not that she had expected him to be cold and uncaring, she had just expected him to go back to recharge since she was pretty sure that he had patrol in the morning. But he was staring her dead in the eyes waiting for her to say something.

Sunny was watching her too, waiting for her to say something.

Her mouth started running before she could get a handle on it. "I...I was dreaming about when I...when I had my first sparkling. Well had implies that I went into labor and birthed him...it was more like he was cut out of my gestation sack." As soon as the words were out of her mouth she smacked herself in the forehead. Literally. Wasn't she trying to prevent them from worrying more about her? And here she was saying things like that to two of the most overprotective mechs that she had ever met. "Forget that I said that..."

The chassis that she was laying on suddenly made a loud shuddering sound as its vents hitched. "Keeping it in won't help you feel better sweetspark. Just look at Sunny."

She peeked out at the golden mech from under her hair. He was glaring at Sides with promises of retribution in his optics. A small niggling feeling of amusement shot through her before it was squashed down by the pain.

"He never talks about what's bothering him so he's always pissed off and taking it out on others. You don't wanna be like that do you?"

"Sides it's not always that easy to talk about things like that. I know that I've said things to you before, but it was all because circumstances forced me to talk about it, and I was very vague about specific events. I could sit here and talk only about my sparklings and what happened to them all day long, every day, for who knows how long, and never cover all of it. That's not even going into the things that I went through myself. The only ones that will ever truly understand me are Estelle and the others. Even if I talk to you, you won't really understand the depth of pain and how to deal with it. So why should I allow myself to trouble you with it when you weren't even directly involved? You have enough to worry about already. Let it go," she sighed and rolled over onto her back stretching her arms over her head languidly.

Yes she did love them wholesparkedly, but she did not want to make them worry about her more than they already were. So when Sides tried to get her to talk she rolled over and flopped down onto the center of the berth and curled in on herself before muttering a good night. And thankfully conversation ceased after that before she could lose her temper.

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

Sunstreaker was a lot of things. Cold, murderous, sociopathic, vain, arrogant. Take your pick of almost any negative trait and you would probably get him in a nutshell. But when it came to his femme the opposite was true. He was gentle, loving, compassionate, and attentive. And if anybot else commented on it he was going to murder them slowly and painfully.

But that was all beside the point right now. Lil was in the med bay working with Ratchet again, and he was tracking down Smokescreen to ask the mech for a favor. As much as he hated to admit it Lil needed help dealing with her past, and she, for some unknown reason, wasn't comfortable talking to them about it. He wanted, no needed to know why that was.

He tracked Smokey down in the rec room with Bluestreak and made a bee line for the table they were sitting at. "Get lost Bluestreak, I have something important that I need to talk to Smokey about." A harsh glare sent the blue marksman scrambling out of his seat and out the door. He seated himself in the place that Bluestreak had vacated with a grunt.

Smokey merely raised an optic ridge at him. "You needed to talk to me about something?" he pointed out dryly.

"Yeah. I needed to ask you something about Red."

Optics ridges raised almost to the point that they touched his delicate gold chevron. "Is something wrong with her? Well I know that on the inside something is wrong with her but..."

"Yeah. She's uhh been suffering from nightmares a lot, not even the recharge tonics that Ratchet has been giving her are helping her to get adequate recharge. Sides and I have tried to get her to talk about the dreams but she refuses to open up any more than she already has. And according to her what she's already said was not even a fraction of what really happened."

"Yes I heard from Optimus that she was a special case. He filled me in on her background, or what they could find out about it, and I have to agree that the likelihood that there is much more to it is very high." Smokey crossed his servos at the digits and leaned his lower jaw on them comfortably.

"Why is she so adamant about keeping it from us? She won't talk to us about it at all besides some vague remarks here and there. Doesn't she know that she can trust us? How are we supposed to sparkbond if she can't even speak to us about the pain in her spark on her own? She has to know that everything will be shared in a sparkbond right?" She had to right? But what if she didn't? What if she found out and her fears had her pulling back away from them? He gritted his denta so hard that he tasted Energon in his mouth. If that happened he didn't know if he would be able to move on without her. No he knew that he wouldn't be able to. Primus had sent her to them himself.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Smokey suddenly asked him while looking completely stoic. Not betraying a single emotion whatsoever besides cool collected intensity. "Sometimes trust is not measured by how much somebot is willing to say Sunny, sometimes it is measured by something so small as allowing a touch between two individuals. I can bet that she had an aversion to physical contact when she first came here didn't she?"

"Yeah. But she's gotten over that pretty fast."

"Because she trusts you and the bots on base more than you all might be aware of," Smokey sighed and leaned back in his seat slightly optics shuttering once almost lazily. "But talking is another story completely for somebots. For some the thought of telling those that they trust and care for about all of the things that happened to them is as scary as experiencing the things in the first place. I would bet that little sweets is scared that you will judge her on some level, that perhaps you may even blame her for what happened to her. I can almost guarantee that when she thinks of her sparklings, when she has nightmares about them, she doesn't want to talk to you about it because she is fearful that perhaps you will not see her as a fit caretaker for any sparklings that she will provide you with. Perhaps she thinks that you may even draw back from her? I can only make an estimated guess based on what you and Optimus have told me."

Through all of what Smokey said he was stuck on the whole, 'they would think she was an unfit caretaker' part of it. Did she really think that they would deny her sparklings if they knew the full extent of what happened to her when she was but a sparkling herself? That was just... "Absurd," he muttered under his breath.

Smokey raised an optic ridge at him. "What's so absurd about what I said?"

"No not that!" he hastily back tracked. "I was thinking that it was absurd that she would think that we would deny her sparklings because her bastard sire and that other mech murdered her other sparklings right in front of her. Not only does she want them, but Sides and I want them as well."

"And she knows this?"

"Yeah we told her not too long ago. We also told her that we wouldn't let anything happen to any sparklings that we have."

A frown pulled at Smokey's mouth components. "Sunny you have to understand that as much as that femme trusts you, there will always be a part of her that is filled with fear and indecisiveness. Imagine how many times she watched the sparks that she gave life to murdered right in front of her optics. Imagine the way that must have felt to her, how painful it must have been to feel the bond that all femme creators and their sparklings share extinguished like it was."

He grimaced and tried not to let a homicidal rage overcome him.

"Now think about it Sunny...how many of those sparklings do you think were sparked by her choice?"

"None." He wasn't really sure where Smokey was going with this.

"Right. So you also have to factor in that she was raped repeatedly for over half of her life. You have to understand that for so long she only knew fear and uncertainty, and anguish. Do you really think that telling her one time is going to make her believe it wholeheartedly?"

"No," he practically hissed the word. All he could think of was some other bot taking advantage of his Red when she was small and unable to protect herself. All he could picture was her face when she watched her sparklings being...and he didn't want to think about that.

"Right. She's going to be indecisive and afraid to tell you those things. Not because she doesn't trust you, but because she's angry at herself. I would also bet that she does not want to worry you over something that she feels that she can simply repress until you do not notice it anymore. In her mind you two have enough to be concerned over with fighting a war, so her pain is completely secondary."

"Secondary? Sides and I may be fighting in a war but she will never be any less important to us than anything else we are doing." That femme was going to be the deciding factor in whether he went crazy, crazier than he already was anyways. Apparently he and Sides had a lot to do to make her feel like she could talk to them. Or maybe she needed to talk to somebot that she really didn't know all that well? And Smokey was the best of the best at analyzing mental states.

He looked up, meeting Smokey's optics squarely. "Smokey can you maybe talk to her? Maybe we can get her to agree to see you for counseling?"

Smokey nodded. "That would probably be a good idea. However getting her to agree to it is a whole other story. You should speak to her about it when you have the chance. If she does not agree herself then we will go to Ratchet and Optimus and request that they strongly suggest that she do it."

"You mean that they make her do it," he deadpanned not liking the idea.

Smokey shrugged. "If that's how you want to put it. She needs an outlet for her pain and that takes precedence over any subsequent freakouts that she may have."

"Right." Smokey was right...but why did he feel like slag for agreeing with him? What would Sides think if he could hear what they were talking about? He had blocked the bond for that reason because he didn't want Sides to become defensive over anything that Smokey said. And if his twin found out that they were going to force Red to do anything against her will he would probably throw a fit. "What about Sides?"

"If he loves her he'll understand and accept the fact that she needs it." Smokey rose from his seat and stretched before turning towards the door. "Listen Sunny, she may lash out at you and push you away after these sessions start. She may become introverted or even downright angry and aggressive. But the important thing for you to remember is not to give up and walk away no matter how hard it gets. Remember that after she lashes out the pain is going to consume her, and she's going to need you to be there to comfort her. So don't let her push you away completely no matter how hurtful the things that she says are. Even if she tells you to leave, don't because deep down she won't really mean it. She loves you two. She needs you even if she's angry and hurting and wants you to go away. Remember that she will come back to you." With that Smokey left the room, probably to go and consult with Optimus.

With a grunt he hefted himself out of his seat and made his way from the rec room. He opened the bond with Sides back up and offered up a brief apology for shutting him out as he made his way towards the med bay.

There was no response from Sides besides a feeling of disgruntlement and suspicion. Other than that they both proceeded to ignore each other.

He stopped in front of the med bay and pushed the button to open the door. Stepping inside his optics found Lilah sitting on a berth working on Skids while Ratchet supervised her progress. "What happened to the slagger?" His optics drifted over to the other berth where Mudflap was laying with several fresh weld jobs.

"They got into another fight and banged each other up pretty good," Lilah muttered distractedly as she pulled a small welder up and started applying a patch job to Skids chassis. "If you ask me they should be rewired into microwaves," she snorted.

"Agreed," Ratchet muttered darkly. "Steady sweetling. You don't want to accidentally catch any wiring with the welder."

"Right." She straightened her shoulders and worked the welder down the side of the metal plating she was working on securing the last bit of it into place.

Ratchet helped her down once she was finished and looked over her work. "You're getting better, the last time you welded Mudflap you hit his wiring."

Lil grinned and lifted her mask. "Yeah and it was definitely on accident...I guess I just didn't know what I was doing pops." She looked over at him and winked at him as well.

He snorted and stepped up to the berth that she was standing on holding a servo out for her to jump onto. "I don't think you should be openly admitting to tormenting other bots babe."

She dropped her tools and leapt gracefully onto his palm while still grinning. She only shrugged at his statement and reached out towards his spark chamber. "The others don't have to know about it...and Ratchet does the same thing all of the time anyways so it's whatevs."

A single optic ridge shot up into his helm. "It's whatevs? What is that supposed to mean?" He brought her to his chassis and held her against it so that she could feel his spark humming.

"Mmmm it means that I don't care regardless."

"Hmph. Right how did I not know that?" Using both servos he cradled her completely against his chassis and turned to Ratchet. "Hey Hatchet is she done in here yet? I need her for something."

Ratchet paused in scanning Skids to regard him almost cautiously. "What do you need her for?" He had the look in his optics that was promising pain for some reason. Like an overprotective creator questioning his femling's first outing with a young mech.

"I need to talk to her about something. Cool it Hatchet."

"Hmph! She's done for today so you may take her." Before he could escape from the med bay Ratchet called out one more time. "No interfacing."

He snorted and made his escape with her.

They were both silent as they made their way down the corridors, well as he made his way down the corridors while carrying her. There was so much on his mind like how he wanted to bring this up, how she would react, what Sides would think, whether this would affect their relationship with her? What would he do if she got angry and pushed him away?

These were all things that he was thinking when he stopped in front of his and Sides quarters. He would have taken her to her room but Aednat was in there and he didn't want the cybercat pulling her leviathan cannons on him when Lilah got upset. Because she was going to...

He stepped into his room and locked the door so that only Sides could get in with his override code. Once the lock clicked into place he strolled over and deposited her on the berth before pulling up his art chair to sit on.

"Sunny? What's going on? Is something wrong with Sides?" She glanced at him almost fearfully.

"No he's fine baby. I wanted to talk to you about what happened this morning."

Her expression suddenly became defensive. "Sunny I already told you-"

"That you didn't want to talk about it," he repeated what she had said to him and Sides multiple times. That was fine and good; there were things that he didn't want to talk about either. But he knew that he would have to learn to be okay with her knowing about them in order to sparkbond with her. Just as she would have to learn to be okay with them knowing about her past. "Baby I need to explain some things to you okay?"

She only eyed him warily.

"I wanted to explain how a true sparkbond works. You see in order for us to sparkbond as mates we have to touch sparks, and when we touch sparks memories are shared." His sensors caught the slight stiffening of her frame, the increased rate of her spark, and slight paling of her skin. "All of our memories will be shared during the initial sparkmerging. We will share ours with you, and you will share yours with us. That's just how it works and there's no way around it."

"I know," she murmured in a weak wispy voice. Anybot looking at her could literally see the way she folded in on herself in nervousness and apprehension, when moments ago she had been cheerful and upbeat.

"Well if you know then you must understand that all the emotions pertaining to the memories are shared as well. This happens to create the deepest bond possible between two sparks."

"Why are you telling me this Sunny?" She suddenly glared at him angrily. "I know all of this! I know what a sparkbond is! In case you have conveniently forgotten I have sparkbonded before to Moondancer and to my sparklings! I know what it is! I don't need you to tell me!"

She was angry and he hadn't really been expecting her temper to ignite so fast. They only thing that he could think to say, was to ask her why she was so pissed. It wasn't like he had said anything bad about her, nor had he given the impression that he was thinking anything negative. He had merely been explaining sparkmerging and subsequent bonding. "There's no reason to be angry baby. I wasn't trying to upset you; I was only trying to make sure that you understood completely what was going to happen between us."

She bowed her head so that her bangs were hiding her optics. "I-I know but..."

"The bonds that you had weren't the same Lilah. A true sparkbond between mates is much deeper. We will literally be able to feel what the other is feeling, see what they see, and communicate without even speaking. You may have experienced that with your danniluk before, but our bond will be much stronger." He sighed and leaned forward on his stool so that could take her tiny servos in one of his large ones. "You're afraid to let us see what's in your head, what you're feeling in your spark," he murmured quietly, like one would speak to a frightened sparkling. He felt like she was made of glass and she would break if he was too loud, or if he touched her. And he never wanted that, any of it.

"No I'm not," she denied weakly, still refusing to look up at him.

"You are. That's not your fault Lilah...I know that you don't believe it, but none of it was your fault. Not what happened to you, or to your sparklings, or even to your danniluk. But I know that you won't stop blaming yourself, and I know that you aren't ready to open up and let us into your spark completely because it hurts too much." He gently caressed her glove covered servos lovingly and brought them to his mouth components so that he could press a kiss to them both. Her optics finally met his with sorrow and shame residing in them. It made his spark well up with pain because she looked so broken once the mask fell. "Baby I talked to Smokey today...and I want you to start seeing him for counseling." There he said it! It was out in the open for her to interpret and respond to it however she wanted.

Her optics widened and her jaw dropped. "W-What?! Counseling?!"

"Baby I know that you don't want to but you need to talk about it to somebot! Sides and I would listen but you don't want to talk to us about it!" He hurried to do something to dissuade the rising anger and grief that he saw building up in her optics. "Smokey is a great psychologist baby he can help you! You can talk to him about it! About anything and he won't say a thing to us! You can get it all out in the open and relieve the pain in your spark."

She roughly jerked her servos out of his and stood up while offering him the harshest glare she could muster with tears rapidly leaking down her cheeks. "I DO NOT NEED COUNSELING! I AM NOT CRAZY!"

"I never said that you were crazy!"

"YOU MIGHT AS WELL HAVE SUNNY! NO! I'M NOT DOING IT! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

The door to his room slid open suddenly startling both of them. Both whipped around in the direction of the door, optics landing on Sides who slid into the room and relocked the door. He turned to them both and raised an optic ridge. "Why is Lil yelling at you?" His optics drifted over and widened when he saw her crying. "Lil?! Why are you crying?" Sides rushed passed him and plucked her up from the berth.

"He thinks I'm crazy Sides!" Lilah cried into his twin's bright red chassis.

Sides turned to him looking angry. "What did you say to her Sunny?"

He immediately got defensive. "I said that I wanted her to start going to counseling sessions with Smokey! I never said that she was crazy! I just said that I wanted her to be able to deal with her pain!"

Lilah hitched out another sob and clutched harder to Sides chassis. "I don't need counseling!"

Sides frowned down at her before stroking her back comfortingly. "Sweetspark Sunny didn't mean that you were crazy or anything like that. He just wants you to feel better." His twin looked at him and prompted him to send him the entire conversation so that he would know exactly what was said.

So he sent him vid files of his conversation with Smokey, and the subsequent conversation that he and Lilah had, all while feeling like slag because he had made her cry when he promised not to hurt her. He never meant to hurt her...he loved her.

Sides optics dimmed as he processed the new information he received. After several kliks his optics brightened back to their normal dark blue color. They focused in on his for a moment before drifting down to the femme curled against his chassis.

He couldn't really tell what Sides was thinking right now. His thoughts were so unfocused and rapidly changing that it was hard to pick out anything other than Lilah's face and the emotions associated with the images. Anger, regret, love, worry, determination.

"Sweets look at me." Sides forced her tear streaked face up making her look directly at him. "Sweetspark Sunny did not mean what he said to make you feel bad."

"But he-"

"Is worried about you. We both are." Sides sat down on the berth and held her in his lap as he watched her. Always watching her. "There's a lot of pain that you are repressing sweetspark, you need to let it out. If talking will make you feel better then you need to talk. I agree with Sunny about the counseling thing. It'll be easier for you to come out with the pain to somebot that you don't really know who you aren't afraid of being abandoned by. Sunny and I will be here when you need us, but you need somebot else to talk to. At least until you feel more comfortable about talking to us about it. Okay?"

She shook her head no and tried to extricate herself from Sides servos. "No."

"Yes. You need to do this so that we can sparkbond sweets, so that you can share your memories openly with us. That is what's needed for a sparkbond. Complete trust. Everything is shared, memories, emotions, everything. And you need to be okay with it to sparkmerge for the first time, because if you try and draw back suddenly it can harm our sparks. And you have to face all of the memories, ours and your own, to form the bond."

"Not only that, but immediately following the first sparkmerging we have to interface to solidify the bond. I don't know about other mechs, but I won't allow us to do any of this if I think it will frighten or hurt you in any way. So until I know for certain that you can handle it we won't sparkmerge or interface. So if you want to bond with us for the rest of our lives you need to do this. Sunny and I aren't going to leave you regardless, but we won't bond or interface with you until you deal with all of this."

He stared at his twin thankful that he understood and was with him on this. The only thing that he regretted was that Lilah was now crying even harder than before. He knew that it must be hard to be told that you couldn't move forward with the ones that you love because your past was too fucked up and you had to deal with it for the good of everybot involved.

"So you're going to force me?" she choked out brokenly.

He frowned and caressed her back gently. "Baby it's for your own good. We're asking this of you because we love you."

"All because of a fragging nightmare?!" She suddenly spun on him in a flurry of angry tears. "Everybot has nightmares Sunny! You don't force Blue to go to counseling because he had nightmares!" she snapped.

"Blue isn't our intended sparkmate. And besides he has Smokey to help him deal with things when he can't handle them," Sides pointed out.

The angry look never left her optics.

It only served to ignite his already frayed temper which he had been desperately trying to control so as not to yell and scare her. "Baby...you are going to start seeing Smokey and that is the end of this discussion. I don't want to force you to do anything, but for your own wellbeing I will force you to do this. Optimus and Ratchet will support us on this so you're really out of options here baby."

She only glared harder at him and briskly stood from Sides lap. Without a word she turned and leapt off of the berth, and was through the door into her room without missing a beat.

They only watched her go with sad optics. He hoped that she would understand one day soon, why they had done this.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! What? You didn't think the trials were over did you? There's still a lot more to come!<p> 


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

So there's probably going to be quite a few times skips in this story spread out. I don't think the majority will be very extensive, but then again one or two of them might be. Just wanted to let you know. I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>Two days. For two days she had been completely ignoring Sides and Sunny, along with almost every other bot on base. She had barely even left her room for anything other than to eat or when she was forced to do her work in the med bay. Ratchet just wouldn't let her sit there and waste away in her room. Neither would Sides and Sunny...<p>

They made her leave her room at least twice a day to eat. During these times they would try and talk to her, to explain exactly why they had fragged her over. But she never listened to them. There was so much anger in her spark that she didn't know how to properly handle it all, so her emotions were always running haywire.

And now things were about to get worse because she was heading to her first counseling session with Smokescreen. It felt like she was being marched to her own death or something. Well it felt as close as it could when she was being carried to Smokescreen's office because she had refused to get up from her bed and leave of her own volition. So Sunny had grabbed her and carried her instead.

Too soon for her tastes they arrived at the large doors to Smokescreen's office. A room that she suspected had been set up solely so that he could mind frag her. She scowled at the door as it opened up and both Sunny and Sides stepped inside the room.

Smokescreen was sitting behind a desk looking over a datapad, he gestured for Sunny to sit her down on a large bot sized couch without saying a word.

So the golden mech sat her down on the silicon coated metal couch. She looked around the room at the shelves holding numerous datapads, the large metal desk that Smokescreen was sitting at, the few small paintings that hung around the office, probably done by Sunny. If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't want to be here she would not think that this room was pretty nice. As it was she fragging hated it with everything in her spark.

Sunny knelt down in front of her so that he was optic level with her. "Babe Sides and I are going to be here right when you get done okay?"

Sides knelt down as well smiling softly at her as he leaned his helm forward to nuzzle her gently. "We'll be waiting sweetspark. Maybe when you're done we can go and do something together like watch a movie?" he suggested with a grin.

A burst of anger shot up in her and she jerked away from him. No movies. No games. She didn't even want them near her right now! Why couldn't they see how much they had hurt her? They had promised never to do that and they had broken that promise!

Sides frowned at her but otherwise didn't say anything as he drew back and rose to his pedes. Sunny seemed to sense that any affection would not be returned because he too drew back without attempting it. "We'll be waiting babe."

With that both of them briskly made their way out of the room closing the door behind them... And leaving her with Smokescreen who she was sure was going to become the bane of her existence. He was staring at her from behind his desk intently, she just glared back.

It didn't have the desired effect on him because he just stood and dragged a chair closer to where she was sitting before taking his own seat. He watched her for another moment expectantly, as if he was waiting for something. When she said nothing in response he sighed. "All right Lilah you know why you're here. Starting today you will have two counseling sessions a week for a joor a piece. In these sessions I want you to talk about your past and what you're feeling. This is a safe place to vent without fear of judgment."

She snorted in disbelief. "Right. Like I would ever believe that the things that are said in here will never be used against me somehow."

Smokescreen only shrugged. "What is said in here will remain between us unless you want me to tell somebot else."

"Whatever," she muttered quietly to herself. She wanted to tell him that he was a fragging idiot if he thought that she was going to talk about anything that she didn't want to.

"Why don't you start after you were taken by the cons?"

Just mentioning that part of her life was so painful; her spark gave a sharp jolt of absolute agony. She whimpered and clutched at her chest to steady the harsh pants that immediately followed. No she wasn't going to talk about it. It didn't matter that she had made a fool of herself by whimpering in pain over such a small question! She wasn't going to talk! All she had to do was stall for a joor and she could leave.

There was silence in the room as she sat there shaking and watching the clock for over a breem. Neither of them spoke, she didn't even look at him even though she could feel him watching her.

"You do not get to leave until we make some progress Lilah. We can make it two joors, or three joors if I feel that you haven't properly vented your pain. Make this easier on yourself and say something."

Her entire body stiffened to the point that it actually hurt. Slowly she turned towards Smokescreen and offered him a weak glare. How she was starting to hate him! So much! All of them were fragging aftholes! Sides, Sunny, Optimus, Ratchet, Smokescreen! They were all no better than the cons making her do things that she didn't want to!

Some part of her argued against that but she roughly cut it off before it could sway her. They had forced her to be here! Forced! Like she was some kind of worthless animal that was caged! She hated that!

Growling she contemplated attacking him for a moment and making an escape, but she didn't because she knew that she wouldn't get very far. The doors to this room were sound proof, but she could sense Sides and Sunny outside the door where they had taken up a post of some sort. So if she did that she wouldn't get very far, and even if she was mad at them she didn't want to hurt them.

She sat back and sneered at him condescendingly. "When they took me? What part do you want to hear about? When they cut me open like an animal to poke at my insides like I was the newest toy? I was too young to be a breeding tool at first so I had to make do with being dissected."

Smokescreen seemed to slump into his chair. "Did it start right away?"

"Yes. Almost," she bit out dangerously. "They were so very generous to allow me to have one day to recover from the trip. And I say recover in a very subjective way; it was more like they shackled me to a wall and left me there with no food or water." She could clearly remember the cuffs digging into her wrist and drawing blood which dripped down over her small quivering form. It had been so cold down in that cell...she had been thinking about her siblings and what had happened to them to distract herself from the pain and fear. But it only served to cause her anguish when she really thought about it. Even back then when she was so young she had known that they were dead.

He didn't say anything.

"I spent that first night thinking about my brothers and sisters...about the fact that they were dead. The blood dripped down from the cuffs around my wrists where they had dug into my skin and shredded it." She took a deep shuddering breath and drew her knees up to her chest so that she could wrap her arms around them protectively. All she had to do was last for one joor. One joor at a time. She had done worse. "The next morning 'he' came for me. I was so small and his bright red optic scared me. Shockwave. He was so big that I thought that he would step on me and squish me, but he didn't. He just sat there staring at me with that one big red optic...and you know what he told me after a moment? That the man that I thought was my father wasn't really my father...he told me that everything that I had thought that I knew was a lie."

The pain that had coursed through her when he told her that her papa wasn't actually her papa...that everything was fake. That her young life was nothing but a lie. It had hurt so fragging bad, it still did. She had fought it back then, denied the truth of what he had said. It had only hurt her in the end.

"I told him that he was lying...and he told me that he would prove to me what I really was. He had Burstimpact gather me up and take me to the lab." Spark hammering in her chest, she recalled in vivid detail what had happened. Her first real taste of pain and suffering. "I was restrained down to a medical berth with cuffs, and hooked to a spark support machine, while my creator sat there and watched him cut into me. They kept telling me that the machines that they had hooked me to wouldn't let me die. They said it like it would really matter to me when I was being dissected while I was still alive. No pain suppressors. No nothing. I could feel the blade cutting through my stomach, through the muscle and fat, and it hurt so fragging bad. I was so scared that I just threw up all over the berth, both from the fear and pain." Her vision started blurring as she gasped out for a breath. Any breath that she could force into her heaving lungs. She could literally feel that pain all over again. Vividly.

But it could always get worse. It always did get worse. She knew that, she knew it well. She didn't want to feel the fear of those days all over again, all she wanted was to do was make it go away for one moment.

"I watched, writhing in agony, as my intestines were pulled out of my stomach." Using her hands she showed him what they did next, bringing them up in front of her face and shaking them twice. "He held them up for me to see, they were a dull metallic gray. They explained to me that I was a hybrid, that I was half Cybertronian and half human. As such my body contained a slightly different chemical makeup then both species, though we share many similarities. My body is more like yours. My organs are made of type of flesh that was more metallic in nature; this made it so that they would not deteriorate like a human's organs would. My creator seemed pleased by that you know? My organs were even stronger than the other hybrids. But all I could think about was the fact that I wasn't even human. But the pain was so bad that I couldn't think rationally enough to really be affected by it at that moment."

"The most memorable part of that day though...was seeing the glow of my spark reflecting off of my internal organs when Burstimpact cut into my chest. It almost blinded me it was so bright. When Shockwave saw it he said that he knew that I was special...he said that he was proud of his creation."

Smokescreen continued watching her impassively. "What else? How did that make you feel? When they were doing that to you, what did you feel besides fear?"

She glared at him through blurry eyes. "I HATED THEM FOR IT! I WANTED TO GET OFF OF THE BERTH AND HIDE! I WAS SCARED SLAGLESS! BUT I WAS ALSO ANGRY THAT EVERYTHING THAT I THOUGHT I KNEW WAS LIES! ALL OF IT!"

"Was it though? Your siblings and their affection for you? Was it all a lie? Was Shockwave telling you the truth?" Smokescreen asked quietly.

She answered him immediately. "No! That part wasn't a lie! They did love me but they also kept me at arm's length because I was...because I...mother died because of me." Gasping she fell onto her side and curled in on herself defensively. "I fragging murdered her! Tore her apart from the inside out! They said that it was just because she was sick, but she was sick because of me and I killed her! If they had known that it was all because of me they would've never cared about me. And when he told me what I was, I knew it was all my fault and I hated myself for it."

Her spark was hurting so much...Primus it hurt so much! Why did it have to stay with her all this time?! A small whimper escaped her mouth as she curled in even further on herself. She was rapidly losing control on any semblance of normality that she had. All the walls she had built were falling and cracking under the weight as the waves of anguish spilled over the top making them buckle under the weight. She felt like her spark was going to snap like a fragging toothpick!

Reflexively her empathic skill kicked on, cycling her panic and terror into her surroundings. Letting them all fell just what she was feeling.

Smokescreen kept his stoic mask, but she was able to feel his shock clearly. His shock and his anger that he kept hidden so well. She would envy that if she wasn't a master of making a fake facade to keep everybot else out.

"Things can only get worse. That's what Burstimpact said to me as he cauterized my wounds shut with a metal scrap and a welder. At least I survived my first time being ripped open," she added in a fake voice dripping with sarcastic humor. Which probably made her seem fragging crazy since she was leaking substantially despite her best efforts to make it stop. She just couldn't make it stop!

Smokescreen opened his mouth components to say something to her when his optics suddenly dimmed. A moment later they brightened up again and he placed his datapad on his desk. "Our time is up for today Lilah. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are coming in to get you."

No sooner had he said that then the door to his office slid open and the two frontliners rushed inside. Sides came and knelt beside the couch peering at her leaking eyes and tear stained cheeks worriedly, while Sunny was talking quietly to Smokescreen. "Sweetspark come here." He gently reached out and picked her up.

She whimpered and curled in even more on herself until her head was tucked almost completely between her knees. Her hair fell over her eyes obscuring her view of her surroundings acting like a curtain. She knew what she was doing...some parts of her instincts would always be Cybertronian in nature. And sparklings curled in on themselves like this when they were feeling threatened or scared. The only thing that could have completed the whole act was if she chirped and keened...she wasn't going to do that though.

Sides crooned down at her gently, like bots do to soothe sparklings or mates.

She felt his digits gently soothe over her tense back trying to alleviate the knots in her taut body. It didn't work...and she only curled in on herself until her head was almost level with her aft.

"Take her back to her quarters Sides. She needs to be in someplace familiar, someplace that she feels safe. Watch her closely in case..." Smokescreen trailed off.

"Right. We'll take good care of her Smokey," Sides responded before she felt the gentle gliding feeling that accompanied his movements.

Never once did she look up at either of them while they made their way back to her quarters. Several times she felt their optics on her intensely, she only responded by grabbing handfuls of her hair and yanking it over her to cover more of her body. Neither of them commented on it though.

There was a hissing sound after several moments as a door opened. She heard it slide shut after them before she was set on something soft and a blanket was pulled up over her. A moment later Aednat was deposited onto her bed, her feline companion came over and curled up next to her while purring. On instinct she reached out to the larger body and wrapped herself around it as a small keen finally escaped her mouth. Aednat responded by turning to her and placing her helm on the junction of her shoulder and neck.

Using her other hand she pulled the comforter up over both of them, blocking out the outside world completely. And there, under the safety of her blankets, she allowed herself to dissolve completely into the pain. At least for a little while.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Two days had passed since Lil had seen Smokey for the first time and in that time she had taken to laying with Aednat in her berth all cycle, every cycle. She just laid there and cried or whimpered, or she sometimes just stared at the wall for no apparent reason.

All while he and Sunny watched, unsure what to do to help her. They had taken to laying with her in holoform, but she rarely responded to them, and when she did it was to push them away. The only company that she accepted was Aednat's and that hurt.

Smokey had warned them that she would probably not be accepting of them for a few days... But he missed talking to her and kissing her...and holding her. You never knew how much you take for granted what you have, until you don't have it anymore. And he didn't have her physical affection which he craved.

Not only that but he wanted to comfort her. His mate programming was demanding that he do something, anything to make her feel better. And his spark agreed completely with what his programming was trying to make him do. The only question was how...

The last thing that he remembered Lil even showing any excitement over was the possibility that her friend Annie was going to come and visit her again, and that she was going to bring her sister Jezzebelle with her. But with all of the chaos of dealing with new arrivals, and Lil's first counseling session it had been forgotten.

His optics widened as he sat bolt upright against her wall where he had been watching her recharge. That was it! He could get in touch with Annie and have her come and visit! Maybe they could even help Lil to feel better about the whole mess!

And luckily he had hacked into Lil's phone and saved Annie's number so that he could contact her if he needed. The only thing that he needed to do was make sure that it was okay with Optimus.

**'Hey Optimus would it be acceptable to have Annie and her sister come for a visit today? Lil's still feeling pretty down and I want to do something to cheer her up,'** he asked through the direct com link.

It took a moment for Optimus to respond back. **'That would be acceptable. Sunstreaker should be returning from patrol soon, he will assist you in keeping an optic on them.'**

**'Right. Thanks Optimus.'** They both cut the link; he opened another one and put in Annie's contact number. Good thing about com links was that he could link to cell phones!

The line rang several times before Annie's bubbly voice answered. "Hello?"

"Hello Annie this is Sideswipe...Lil's boyfriend."

"Oh hey Siders! Is Lil okay? Did she finally ask you if we could come see her?" she asked excitedly.

He shifted nervously, optics shooting to Lil's recharging form once more. "Well she mentioned it a few days ago but we had some stuff going on so we couldn't do it. But, well we..."

There was silence over the line for a moment before Annie spoke up in a worried tone. "Siders? Is Lil okay?"

"Yeah she's fine it's just..." He sighed and leaned back against the wall again. "Sunny and I were worried about her so we made her go to counseling with the Autobot Psychologist, and she's been laying around like a lump ever since."

Silence. "Oh..."

"Yeah so I was wondering if maybe you and your sister would come and visit to cheer her up? Sunny and I have been trying but she's...mad at us for making her go. She keeps pushing us away from her."

"Hold on a sec." There was a soft murmuring between Annie and another femme that he was unable to distinguish. After a moment Annie got back onto the line. "Ok Siders Jezz said that she's okay with that as long as you promise that none of the bots on base are going to hurt either of us."

He snorted. "Annie you've been here before and we didn't hurt you. Lil lives here and we haven't hurt her, nor do any of us have any interest in doing so. You are probably safer here than you are in whatever place you're living in right now."

"Right. Right. But I needed to say it for Jezz's sanity," Annie joked.

He chuckled quietly. "Right. Anyways do you need one of us to come and pick you up?"

"No. I know that you don't like him but Demetri can drop us off. Oh and Arcee wants to come too! Right Cee?!"

He heard Arcee rev her engines once in response. "All right we'll see you soon Annie."

"Ok bye Siders!" Annie bid him goodbye before she hung up.

Cutting the link he stood and made his way over to the berth where Aednat and Lil were recharging. He knelt down beside it and poked her back softly. "Lil? Sweetspark wake up."

Lil groaned and batted at his servos tiredly. "No go away Sides...I wanna lay here and sleep."

He prodded her harder. "No sweets you need to wake up. Annie and Jezz are coming to see you today so you need to get up and get around."

She just grunted and rolled over on her side towards him looking every bit as tired and sparkbroken as she had for the last two days. "Who's bright idea was it to have them come here?"

"Mine. I wanted to do something to make you feel better sweets." He frowned and prodded her until she finally relented and sat up. "I want to see you smile and I thought that you would like to see them. Arcee's coming back too and I know that you like her. Right?"

A disgruntled look twisted at her features taking away from her normally beautiful features. "Yeah I guess. Not that I would need to be cheered up if you two hadn't made me go to counseling," she pointed out angrily.

Ouch. Her anger at them was not fading in the least... "Sweets we talked about this love. Sunny and I want to bond with you, but you need to be ready for all of those memories to be laid bare. This isn't a punishment for doing something bad Lil, this is one of our ways of looking out for you."

"Right. Right. Gotcha," she remarked sarcastically as she stood up from her berth and stretched before making her way over to her dresser to retrieve several clothing items to wear. Afterwards she stormed into her attached showering room and slammed the door shut.

It was while she was in there cleansing herself that Sunny returned from patrol. "Where's Red?"

"Showering. Annie and Jezz are coming to see her today," he murmured dejectedly.

Sunny raised an optic ridge at him before plopping down gracefully beside him. He sighed deeply and trained his optics on the door separating them from their femme. "She's really hurting right now Sides. I know that we aren't the most patient mechs, but for her we have to be. Eventually she'll come around."

"Eventually," he agreed though he was not looking forward to the wait.

Two breems later Lil emerged from the bathroom wearing a black hoodie that only had sleeves that went down to the elbow, and ended at her midriff with a little green dog on it. Her lower half was clad in short dark jean shorts, long black and purple striped socks coming up to her knees, leading down to black converse. Her hair was brushed and braided over her right shoulder resting against her hip.

He whistled internally at how sexy she looked...earning himself a warning look from Sunny. He only grinned and ignored it to make his way over to where Lil was standing. "Ready Lil? Annie should be here soon!"

"Ready as I'll ever be," she muttered as she stepped onto the servo he offered her.

Together the four of them, including Aednat, made their way to the main hangar where Annie and the other short brown haired femme were just getting out of Demetri's alt mode. As soon as Annie saw them she made a mad dash over to them and vaulted up onto his servo to attack Lil in a hug. "LILYBOO! I MISSED YOU!"

The sound of screeching tires suddenly sounded out a moment later as Demetri pealed out of the hangar in his alt mode, leaving the other femme staring after him with a raised brow. "What a drama queen," she muttered before she too made her way over towards them. But unlike Annie she kept glancing around uncomfortably at the bots hanging around in the room.

"Jezzy come over and meet Siders and Sunstreaker!" Annie exclaimed from where she was still clutching at Lil in a death grip.

He grinned and knelt down so that he was more at Jezzebelle's level. "Hey there Jezzebelle! My designation is Sideswipe!" He gestured over at Sunny who was openly scowling at everybot in the room. "And this fragger is my twin brother Sunny."

"Don't call me that," Sunny grumbled.

Jezz eyed his twin warily. "Right...I remember you two quite clearly since you beat Demetri's ass. It was actually pretty funny to watch...he's such a player and a drama queen," she snorted.

Annie looked down at her disapprovingly. "Jezzy...ok so he is that bad but he's still our Di even if he is a bastard."

"A bastard that uses females for sex and nothing else," Jezzebelle deadpanned while eyeing Lilah intently. "The only one that he didn't immediately toss aside, or give up on when he was denied, was Lily. I think that it's actually quite funny that now he was the one that got dropped. He does deserve it," she pointed out.

Sunny snorted. "So does that mean that you won't care when we beat his face plates in next time?"

"No feel free," Jezz smirked.

Lil, Annie, and he just watched the whole exchange in bewilderment. Was his twin actually getting along with somebot besides himself and Lil? He narrowed his optics and glanced quickly back and forth between the two of them. Very interesting...

**'I'm only doing this for Lilah...so don't think that I'm losing my edge,'** Sunny warned him through the bond.

In response he only grinned and nodded slowly. Sure... "So what do you ladies want to do today then? We can watch a movie, or go out somewhere, or go on a pranking spree." Something collided with the back of his helm after the last bit. He yelped and rubbed the spot where Sunny had hit him gingerly. "What was that for?"

"For trying to get us thrown into the brig with your idiocy!" Sunny snapped before he turned back to the femmes and scowled. "Not the pranking bit. We can do anything else besides the pranking part."

All three femmes eyed him with wide optics. Jezz and Annie exchanged a look and grinned. "PRANK WAR!"

Lil just groaned and turned to raise an optic at him. "You had to say prank didn't you Side-" All of a sudden she yelped and hit his servo when a paint bomb smacked her in the side of the head. "THE FRAG?! WE DIDN'T EVEN SAY START YET!" she roared while fingering the green paint coating her red locks. Leaping up she shot down off of his servo and tore off through the hangar after the other two femmes, grabbing a hose from nearby and dousing the two of them in it. Still scowling the whole time...

He took cover behind a pile of scrap metal dragging Sunny with him. From the safety of their cover they both watched the other two femmes pull several more paint bombs from the back packs that they had strapped to their backs and throw them at Lil who dodged to the side in a roll. When she came up out of the roll she dashed over to a nearby shelf and grabbed two cans of paint, popping the tops off. She smirked darkly and blurred into one big blur of black and red.

All he saw was a wave of nasty brown paint go flying through the air, splattering onto the other two femmes who gave identical screams of outrage. They were both covered helm to pede in paint dripping it onto the hangar floor.

Lil suddenly appeared behind them looking completely amused. "Un accidente."

Both of them turned and lunged for her, but she just dodged them by jumping over their helms, kicking off of their backs, and making them fall flat on their faces on the floor. She hit the ground and dashed over to where they were hiding.

"Come on I want to make a stink bomb to hit them with next." Lil took off towards Jacky's lab with Aednat trailing along after her.

They made to run after her after Sunny gave her a look. "You actually had a good idea Sides. She's acting like an actual living being for the first time in two days," Sunny praised him.

"Yeah I know that I'm awesome." He grinned and took off after her before she disappeared from sight.

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

A short time later, and armed with several different kinds of stink bombs, paint bombs, and glue bombs, Lilah peeked out into the corridor warily. As a rule no sensory powers were allowed in a prank war so an attack could come from anywhere... She looked around warily and crept out into the hall with Sides, Sunny, and Aednat, the latter who was being carted around on Sunny's shoulder.

She dashed down to the end of the corridor and pressed herself flat against the wall before peeking around the corner. Nothing. Using a hand she gestured Sides and Sunny over before she turned the corner and made her way briskly down the hallway.

Later she would have to thank Sides for having Jezz and Annie come out, because it was actually really helping to take her mind off of everything. Of course the prank war was definitely helping as well.

A large digit was suddenly poking her in the shoulder causing her to turn around to face Sides who was pointing at a doorway at the end of the hall. He grinned and gestured to the door and held up two of his digits while mouthing, 'they're both in there.'

Her hand immediately shot down to her stink bomb to unclasp it from her belt loop. She crept down the hall and lit it with a lighter that she had in her pocket, before she hit the button to open the door and tossed it inside before locking it with an override code.

She heard a distinct scream from Annie followed closely by a pounding on the door. "OOOOH GROSS! IT STINKS SO BAD LILYBOO! WHAT DID YOU EVEN PUT IN THAT THING? LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Nope. The door is set to open in three minutes so enjoy the smell Annie!"

There was an outraged scream from Jezz which she snorted at before she turned and took off down the hall way. Pedes pounded after her, or screeched in Sides case, as they followed her down the corridor. She turned another corner and skidded to a stop when she saw a bright green set of pedes in her path.

She just barely managed to stay on her feet so as not to fall in front of Limelight. Her 'better' mood dissipated as soon as her eyes landed on the twin's old frag buddy. She had been counting herself as being pretty lucky that she hadn't had to see the femme until now. Looks like that was all ruined. "Limelight."

"Human," Limelight greeted. "Sideswipe, Sunstreaker," she greeted her two mechs as well, much more warmly than she greeted her. It was practically a deep lustful purr that made her fragging skin crawl.

There was a snort from behind her, probably from Sunny, but it was Sides that offered any sort of response back. "Limelight. Uhh what are you doing standing in the corridor like this? Got someplace to be?"

"No. I was just on my way to see Ratchet so that he could have a look at some damage that I sustained to my protoform," she responded shifting her armor aside slightly so that they could see the curve of her hip where a deep nasty wound sat.

Scowling, she grunted and glared full force at the femme. "Yeah we all see it so you can put your armor back on now."

Limelight smirked condescendingly but otherwise let her armor snap back into place. "What's wrong little fleshling? Not so smug once you've seen a femme with a nice frame? One that isn't so scared up and repulsive?"

The comment made her flinch back as pain tore through her chest. Sunny suddenly stepped forward and towered over the smaller femme. "She's not repulsive!" he snapped angrily.

Limelight looked unconcerned that he was both so close, and so angry at her. In fact she looked quite pleased to be on the receiving end of his ire. She purred and circled around him feeling his frame up with her servos languidly. "Oh Sunstreaker I do so love the dominant aggression...perhaps you should forget about that fleshy and come and dominate me again sometime. I'll be your submissive."

Her jaw dropped and she clenched her fists until she felt blood pooling under her skin. Backing away slowly she spun on her heel and stomped back in the direction that she knew Annie and Jezz were in. She bypassed Sides and Aednat, ignoring his protests for her to come back. The one thing that she did not need to see was Sunny getting felt up by another femme while he let it happen. Nor did she want to hear about his past dominations of her.

"Babe come back! Get the frag away from me Limelight! I already told you that it was over between all of us!"

She kept walking all the way back towards where she could now sense Annie and Jezz in. Frag the no sensory power rule! The prank war was as good as over with as far as she was concerned!

The floor shook as both mechs moved to catch up with her, each calling out to her to get her to stop. She didn't even slow down until a bright red servo clamped down on her shoulder. "Let go of me," she ground out through gritted teeth.

"Sweetspark why are you letting her get to you like that?!" Sides protested turning her so that she was facing them. "Sunny and I told her in front of you that it was over, that nothing would ever happen between her and us again. So why let her rile you up like that?"

"Don't pin this on me. He was the one that was letting her feel him up."

Sunny looked affronted. "I did not! I slagging hate that glitch to the pit and back! The only thing that I ever saw in her was a quick frag and nothing more! I was just so slagged off that I couldn't think straight!" He knelt in front of her at optic level. "Babe I know that your helm's a mess right now. I know that things aren't making sense to you all the time, and I know that you're hurting. But you have to know that Sides and I aren't going to walk away from you, not because it's too hard to deal with, or because we want to frag somebot else. In fact we don't even want to frag anybot but you, and we definitely don't want to frag Limelight."

Sides nodded in agreement. "Yeah she's a real glitch sweets. We never even liked her on an emotional level you know? Sure you have some scarring sweetspark, but you're beautiful regardless. Sunny and I love you for what's on the inside. We love you for your spark sweets, not for your frame, or your looks. What we feel for you is on a completely on an emotional level."

So they weren't attracted to her physically...? Why would they be? She was scarred up to the pit and back...the only parts that weren't horribly disfigured were her legs. "Right. Nothing physical."

Both of them groaned and Sunny swiftly smacked Sides on the back of the helm, and Sides just let him without complaint. "No we never said that babe! We said that the real reason we love you is because of what's in your spark! You're beautiful inside and out to us no matter what anybot else thinks."

So she was hideous to anybot but them. Well she guessed that she could be horrendous looking so long as they could at least stand her right? She ignored the horrible throbbing in her spark, the way her scars seemed to just itch and burn suddenly. She didn't say anything else before she turned around and started back in the way that she was heading in earlier.

Despite how she tried to ignore it...she couldn't help but to subconsciously rub her hands over the lumps and indentations under her sleeves...through her gloves. And she hated each small bump that she ghosted over more than the last. Because they were a real reminder of her past, of a time that she struggled valiantly to forget every day.

If she couldn't even stand them...how could they? When they saw them all clearly were they going to balk away from her in disgust? Would they hate them as much as she did?

She just wanted them to disappear. She just wanted to look like Mikaela instead. Flawless, beautiful, soft smooth skin... Or maybe look more like Miata who healed faster than the rest of them so she had fewer scars. Just a few on her abdomen and back to show for her experiences.

For just a moment...she was jealous of Limelight and Miata for being so beautiful. And she hated feeling jealous for such a vain reason. She just hated the scars and the pain that they reminded her of so much...she wanted to be beautiful for her mechs. But she couldn't be, because she was a fragged up glitch from the pit. No better than a lab rat...

Her spark pulsed painfully as the darkness moved to consume it even more. She didn't even know how to fight it off. Nobot would know how to help her...nobot even really wanted to because they cared.

Only Sides and Sunny cared...and she wasn't even good enough for them.

They ran into Annie and Jezz coming around another corner. Both looked at her with matching scowls that quickly fell off of their faces when they caught sight of the probable sparkbroken expression on her face.

Neither of them said anything to her as she passed, they just fell into step beside her as Annie looped an arm around her shoulder. She allowed herself to slump into the comforting embrace...of somebot who knew what she was feeling. Somebot that could relate to her.

"Thanks Annie...for coming here. You too Jezz," she whispered so quietly that she wasn't sure that they could hear her.

Another arm wrapped around her other shoulder. "Anything for you Lily," Jezz murmured quietly.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

So pretty soon here I'm going to have to have surgery which is going to suck...and I also am having some other issues that might require another surgery which I am hoping that I won't have to do cause one is enough. I'm pretty nervous about it since I haven't ever had one, for right now I'm just waiting to find out when it'll be. Ugh I don't want to do it! Anyways I thought I'd type a chapter up to get my mind off of everything! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>Two weeks had gone by since she had started seeing Smokescreen, and so far she wasn't feeling any better despite venting all day to him. Nothing seemed to help her, not Sides and Sunny, not Annie and Jezz, not Jazz or the other bots. Nothing was helping her.<p>

She had just had a session earlier that day with Smokescreen. It hadn't been a particularly easy one for her since she had talked to him about the torture that she had been put through. Some of it anyways. The moments where they had hurt her just to hurt her. To see how much she could take before it got to be too much, and then pressing those limits anyways for fun.

Whether it was being burned with the heated barrel of a plasma cannon, or lashed with an energy whip, they always made it hurt more than it had to. Despite that she had forced herself not to scream as she had grown older and her pain tolerance had increased. It got to the point that Burstimpact would do anything just to get her to scream. He would dig his digits into her wounds and twist them through her circuits and wires. And she would do little more than squirm on the berth glaring at him.

It had only made things worse for her. But she had clung to the silence as a way of defiance. She couldn't say that protecting her pride had not damaged her mind, but she would do it again just to look into those optics and not cave like some frightened animal. If she had to do it all over again she would change nothing in that regard.

Sighing, she made her way to her room and let Aednat out of her cage before taking a seat on her bed. Aednat leapt up beside her on the bed and curled up beside her curling her helm to rest on her thigh. On reflex she reached down and grabbed at Aednat's scruff bar as a way of grounding herself, and Aednat let her.

Leaning down and curling into Aednat's back plates she buried her face there and sighed heavily. Her spark was hurting and nothing was making it any better. Maybe it was because she was still being so defensive with everybot else? Yeah that was probably it.

It felt like she had secluded herself away from anybot else. Almost like others couldn't approach her without feeling super awkward, and she sure as pit couldn't approach them because she felt like they would all think she was crazy. The only ones that she could be around at all were Sides, Sunny, Jazz, and Ratchet. Everybot else was on the avoid at all cost list.

Pit even those four were avoided for the most part. Well besides Sunny and Sides who adamantly refused to not spend every waking second that they were on base with anybot but her. They really were being supportive of her through this whole mess. Sunny hadn't even gotten irritated and yelled at her when she had accidentally scratched his paint the other day. When she had apologized he had just said that it was okay, that it was an easy fix, and not to get herself all worked up over it. Both she and Sides had gaped at him, and Sunny had swiftly smacked Sides in the helm for being an idiot.

That was probably why she was hurting so much over them. Because they were being so comforting, non-forceful, loving, and supportive of all of this when she needed it. And here she was sitting here taking comfort from Aednat instead of seeking them out when she was going to sparkbond to them one day. It really was bothering her.

Another thing that was bothering her was what Limelight said to her that day after her first session. She pulled her sleeves up and subconsciously ran her fingers over her scars before sliding her gloves off and fingering her damaged hands. Nasty bumps and jagged scar tissue lined the knuckles and fingers themselves more heavily than anywhere else. It almost looked like raw hamburger except for the fact that her hand was still a pale white like the rest of her skin. The scars themselves were a nasty pink color marring the skin like a patchwork quilt.

And she hated them. Frag...she hated them so fragging much. And no amount of reassuring by the twins was enough to make her not hate them. It didn't matter that the other bots on base had scars from fighting cons; her scars were there because she was too weak to protect herself. They weren't badges of honor, proof of vicious battles won. Sure she had scars from battles after she had escaped, and those scars were not something that brought her shame like the majority did.

Her mind wandered briefly to Sides and Sunny, she wondered where they had gotten off to today? She had only seen them for a few brief moments this morning when they had taken her to Smokescreen. After that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of them since. If she was being honest it was starting to bother her.

With a sigh she hopped off of her bed. "Come on Aednat. Let's go for a walk or something."

With a soft whir her cyber companion jumped down off of the table and sidled up alongside her. Together the two of them made their way from her room and towards the main hangar.

On the way they bumped into Jazz who came bouncing over to her grinning. "Hey Li'l Lady! Where yo' goin wi'out da twins?"

"On a walk around the base," she shrugged.

Jazz raised an optic ridge at her and frowned. "Outside the base?" His accent dropped letting her know that he was serious. Even his visor darkened to better hide his emotions. "I don't think that's a good idea sweetlin."

She scowled. "I didn't say that I was going far Jazz. All I said was that I was going for a walk nearby, not that I was going far from base."

Aednat shifted closer to her, no doubt sensing her growing irritation with the silver Saboteur. She whirred in confusion and nudged her shoulder with her helm.

"It's ok Aednat," she muttered in a clipped tone. "Look I'm taking Aednat with me and we're going to probably hang out for a few breems outside the base. We won't go far Jazz. And I'm sure that you and Ironhide will be skulking around somewhere nearby watching us. So chill."

"The twins are gonna be mad that you left the actual base without them," Jazz protested quietly. "Are yo' sure yo' wanna take dat chance?" His accent came back and he smirked at her in amusement.

Always changing emotions so fast... "Yes Jazz. If they have an issue with it then they can come and yell at me personally. Deal?"

"Deal. Just be careful and don't stray sweetlin."

"Right. Come on Aednat." She grabbed Aednat's scruffbar and tugged her along passed an impassive looking Jazz.

They resumed their trek to the main hangar where she caught sight of Optimus talking to Galloway of all people. When she passed by him she noticed the National Security Advisor giving her an intense look. One that she promptly ignored as she passed through the hangar threshold.

From what Sides and Sunny had told her the base had been moved to D.C. a while back, but they had been moved back to the original base shortly before they had met her. That meant that there was sand, sand, and more sand as far as she could see. Ugh she was starting to hate sand.

There was no place to find shade besides the overhanging parts of the base roof so she led Aednat over to the side of the building and sat down underneath the overhang which was the only source of shade nearby. Plopping down on the ground beside Aednat she allowed her mind to run once more.

Where were the twins? Why had they been avoiding her today? Her mind couldn't help but to conjure up the worst possible scenarios for her to dwell on. Not that they had been offlined, but that they were out with Limelight fragging her, or that they were trying to decide how to break up with her, stupid things like that.

She had heard girls at school, when she had been forced to attend, say that normally avoidance was the first sign that you were about to get dumped. Either that or the guy was doing something behind your back and just didn't have time for you anymore. Her spark hitched painfully at the thought.

"Sweetspark? What the slag are you doing out here?"

Looking up her eyes landed on Sides deep blue optics. Sunny was standing behind him looking at her worriedly. She shrugged and looked away pointedly. "I got bored sitting inside so I decided to come out here. Didn't have anything better to do."

Sides plopped down in front of her and grinned at her. "Missed us?" He waggled his optics ridges at her.

She snorted. "Yeah. Gets pretty boring when you're not around base doing something incredibly stupid Sides," she deadpanned with a smirk. In her defense what she said was true. When they were absent life was just too serious for it to be good for anybot. And even if she herself wasn't really finding much humor in anything herself right now, the base could always use a splash of the Terror Twins.

Sides spluttered as Sunny just chuckled. "Isn't that the truth?" he asked sarcastically causing Sides to whip around and glare at him.

"It is." She quickly changed the subject when her mind shifted back to that nagging feeling. "So where were you today?"

Both of them grinned, yes even Sunny grinned, at her. "It's a secret sweetspark. We were actually coming to get you so that we could show you." He suddenly shifted to his alt mode and opened his door for her.

"What about Aednat?"

"We commed Jazz to come and get her."

Turning to Sunny in surprise she frowned at him. "What are you two up to? And did Jazz know about it? Because he was being weird today...weirder than normal."

"I'm no' weird!" Jazz appeared out of nowhere and pouted at her as he scooped Aednat up despite the cybercat's whir of protest. "Yo' lov' meh!"

"Oh yes of course I do," she snorted before standing and stretching, climbing into Sides cab she waved once at Jazz's pouting face before Sides shut the door.

They waited for Sunny to shift down before they peeled away from the building. She kept silent during the ride to wherever they were taking her, if she asked questions they wouldn't answer her anyways. Whatever this was, it was probably the reason that they had been so distracted lately. In truth she was kind of afraid of whatever it was.

The scenery passing by outside the window was familiar. With a start she realized that they were taking her to the tree where they had confessed to her not too long ago. She couldn't see it however because Sides had the front window tinted so that she couldn't look out it, and as they drew closer he tinted his door windows so that she couldn't see out of them either.

Frowning she gently patted his seat making him purr. "Umm Sides nothing is going to jump out and maim me right?"

There was a soft rumble from her boyfriend. "No. Would we ever do something that would end up hurting you?"

"Hmmm I don't know...there was that time when you got me involved in pranking Ratchet and I almost got bludgeoned with a wrench," she started in a false thoughtful voice.

"Hey! You didn't get hit though!" Sides protested.

She shrugged once. "Technicalities," she murmured.

They fell into another silence, not awkward or uncomfortable. She was thinking over everything that had happened lately from counseling with Smokescreen, to her encounters with Limelight who she knew was still gunning for her twins, to training with Ratchet in the med bay, and practicing with Ironhide and Bluestreak. She had started working more and more to keep her mind off of things, and she knew that Ratchet and Ironhide had realized what she was doing. In fact both had insisted that she take today off to do whatever she wanted. Now she was pretty sure that the twins had said something to them, or bribed them to let her off so that they could take her to their special spot.

Slumping against the seat, she sighed. Lately she had been even less like herself than normal. Always quiet, introverted, never speaking unless she was spoken too. She was just like she had been when she had first arrived at the base. Before the whole mess with Estelle she had been making real progress towards being more open, and now she was back at square one. Almost.

Hands were suddenly placed on her shoulders making her jump and scream in surprise. Her eyes snapped up and landed on Sides in holoform mode. He was frowning at her and holding his servos up in surrender. That was when she realized that she was breathing hard and shaking like a leaf.

She forced herself to calm down. "Dammit Sides! You scared the slag out of me!"

He managed to look properly ashamed. "Sorry sweetspark I didn't mean to." In one of his servos he held a red cloth which he held up for her to see while grinning impishly. "I was going to tie this around your head so that you wouldn't see the surprise."

"Oh...ok. Just give me a warning next time okay?" He nodded once before holding up the blindfold again and tying it around her head in a tight knot. If she couldn't see more of the world around her even blindfolded, than most people could with their eyes she would feel vulnerable. She didn't though because she could see just as much like this if she so chose to.

"Ok hold on for an astro Lil." There was the sound of shuffling and the door sliding open, before a familiar holoform hand was grabbing a hold of her and towing her from the red Lamborghini. The same hands clamped around her shoulders leading her forward.

"Where's Sunny?"

"He's setting the last few touches up." She didn't need to be looking at Sides to know that he was grinning; it was audible in his voice.

She was led forward another few steps before Sides tugged her to a stop. The faint sound of music was playing nearby, but she didn't think that it was anything from Earth. It almost sounded like an instrumental serenade or something...

"Hold on sweets."

Sides shifted around so that he was standing in front of her and his digits quickly worked the knot off of the back of her head. One of his servos took the place of her blindfold and the other came around her mid back to hold her in place as he backed up some more.

They stopped and Sides suddenly dropped his servos and stepped aside. Her jaw actually dropped. It may just be one tree sitting on a cliff, but somehow the twins had managed to make it look like a scene out of a Disney movie. There were multiple different kinds of flower petals laying scattered about on the ground, roses, carnations, lilies... And in the middle sat a large blue picnic blanket situated underneath the tree which was decorated with large red bows that were expertly tied and placed. Small crystal lights were strung throughout the tree casting the area in a soft glow; she hadn't even realized that the sun was already setting...

Various food items sat on the blanket. A pot that was still steaming, various finger foods like strawberries, watermelon, and little muffins that looked to be homemade. But what really caught her attention was the raspberry cheesecake sitting in the middle next to a stack of Energon cubes, and some wine.

She cupped her mouth with her hands and smiled softly. Any earlier irritation that she was feeling at them seemed to immediately melt and vanish. She felt more than saw the two of them standing behind her waiting so she turned and pulled both of them into a hug. Which was hard because even in holoform they were much bigger than her.

Both of them responded immediately by wrapping their own arms around her.

She laughed when Energon tears started staining one of their shirts. "What is with you two and making me cry all the time?"

There was a soft grunt before whoever she had pressed her face into started wiping the tear tracks from her face. She opened her eyes and caught sight of Sunny's smirking face. So he was the one wiping her tears away. "If we make you cry for a good reason then it makes us feel good."

She snorted at him as Sides took her hand and led her over to the blanket pushing her down onto it. Huh they had even brought several cushions for her to sit on. Comfy ones too.

She eyed the pot that was situated in front of her warily. "What's in the pot and who cooked it?"

Sides laughed at her and pulled the top off of the pot letting the steam waft out. "It's that stuff that you made that one time! Sunny and I saved vid files of you making it, and then we made it for you."

Hesitantly she peeked over the edge of the pot and sniffed at the concoction. It smelled okay... She dipped her finger into it and slipped it into her mouth eyes widening in surprise when it actually tasted pretty good. "And here I was worried that you two would make some sort of inedible concoction since you don't eat."

Sunny snorted at her. "We have giant super computers for brains babe. I think we can figure out how to do something as simple as cooking."

She raised a brow at him when she realized that there were no bowls of spoons for her to actually eat the stew they had made. Had they forgotten? "Oh? So what am I supposed to eat it with then? I don't see any bowls or spoons stud."

Sunny's optics widened and he looked around on the blanket for what was absent. He scowled and turned to look at Sides through narrowed optics. "You forgot the bowls and spoons! How is she supposed to eat that?"

When she turned to Sides he looked embarrassed. "Uhhh well I thought that you were getting them."

Both of them started arguing so she just shrugged and grabbed a piece of meat from the pot before popping it into her mouth. It was hot and it burned her mouth, she opened and closed her mouth a couple times to expel some of the heat before she chewed it. While she was doing that she watched the two bickering about who the dumbaft was that forgot the bowls and spoons.

"How do you forget the spoons Sides? Now we spent all that time cooking her that slag and she can't even eat it!" Sunny growled at his twin.

Sides pouted. "You didn't remind me!"

She popped another piece of meat into her mouth and hummed thoughtfully, and then she popped a piece of potato into her mouth and chewed the perfectly salty food. "You guys did a pretty good job with this," she commented causing them both to turn back to her as she dipped her hand into the pot and popped several pieces of carrot and meat into her mouth.

Sides suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled it away from the pot. "You'll burn yourself!" He started looking her uncovered hands over for burns.

She shrugged before resorting to using her other hand to feed herself. Sunny glowered at her and batted her hand away from the pot. "Eat something else for now and we'll take this back to the base for later."

Shrugging she leaned into his side and dipped her finger in the cheesecake before licking the creamy substance off of her finger. Sides handed her a glass of wine mixed with what she suspected to be high grade if the dark purple of the normally red wine was anything to go by. She thanked him and sipped at the sweet and rich alcohol. "So what's the occasion for all this? Or did you just want to do something nice?"

"We wanted to do something to take your mind off of everything that's been going on lately," Sides answered her.

Downing her glass of wine she sat it down and reached for a piece of cheesecake. "Normally you would eat this with utensils as well...but I can do it without," she teased them before taking a bite from the dessert. Their efforts really did make her feel so much better than she had been. They wouldn't do all of this if they didn't care about her.

"You know you could have stayed in your real forms for this right? That way you could have had some high grade yourselves."

Sides grinned at her while refilling her glass. "But then we couldn't do this as easily." He suddenly leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers.

She squeaked and stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment before relaxing into the kiss and tangling her hands into Sides messy black locks. It had been a while since either of them had taken any initiative in pressing her for intimate affection so she savored the moment.

His lips were warm and soft, yet firm. He guided her gently, pressing just in such a way to get her to respond tentatively. His glossa pressed against her lips and she slowly opened her mouth making him rumble in pleasure before he snaked his glossa into her mouth. She brushed back against his invading glossa tentatively finding that he was letting her take the lead, only responding when she brushed against him. She sighed and tugged on him to get him to move closer, he came along willingly pushing her back onto the ground and lying so that his top half was pressed against hers.

She squashed down the brief trickle of fear that she felt and allowed herself to relax completely, even as Sunny came up on her side and pressed his mouth to the sensitive skin of her neck near her ear. She gasped and turned to him releasing Sideswipe. Sunny met her half way and pressed his lips against hers in a more dominating kiss. He was still gentle and loving, but unlike Sides he took control and pressed his glossa into her mouth immediately. She felt Sides attack her exposed neck and she tilted her head more to the side towards Sunny so that he could have more room.

He pressed his glossa further into her mouth roughly pushing it down on hers and making her moan softly. She felt one of them brush their servo over the inside of her thigh which made her slam her thighs back together. She slammed her eyes shut as her breathing sped up fear trickling through her.

Sunny tensed and immediately drew back from her dragging Sides back with him. "Sorry babe. We didn't mean to scare you."

She sat up and smiled reassuringly at both of them. "No it's ok. It's just...sometimes I misjudge myself and what I'm ready for. So...I should apologize to you because I know that it can't be easy to keep having to pull back like that." She suddenly felt ashamed of herself for the discomfort that she was almost positive that she was causing them by being a wimp. It wasn't even that she didn't want them! It was just that every time it came down to it and they were even remotely close she froze up as memories of the past, and self-doubt crept up on her. At this point it was more the latter, though the former did contribute.

A hand suddenly yanked her face up. Sides was frowning at her in obvious displeasure. "Don't be like that sweetspark. Sunny and I would never expect an apology for something like that when it isn't even that you are leading us on. We know that interfacing is scary for you because of your past and we are more than willing to wait. So don't even try and apologize to us for something like that. We love you and we'll wait as long as we have to."

"I know...but I really want to," she whispered so quietly that she barely even heard herself. "I just can't yet and it's slagging me off!" Because she was so fragging insecure and scared that she couldn't even do what her spark was telling her to do! It was like she was little all over again letting them control her life while her spark desperately pushed her to do something else. It was like she was frozen again with no way to move forward.

"We know," they both answered simultaneously. Sunny scooted over closer to them and wrapped himself around her other side so that she was sandwiched between the two of them. "And we'll wait like we said," both of them murmured together in her ears.

"Promise?"

"We promise."

* * *

><p>Another two weeks passed quickly after her moonlight outing with the twins. Since then she had been in slightly better spirits for the most part, the only time that she was not was after a session with Smokescreen. Which is where the twins were taking her now. She had already long since stopped trying to escape from them because they had to find her sooner or later, and when they did she was immediately carted to Smokey no matter what time it was. And yes she had tried...multiple times.<p>

They walked into Smokescreen's office where Sunny deposited her onto the couch. Both he and Sides nuzzled her gently before quickly leaving her to face Smokescreen again.

Smokescreen was already sitting in front of the couch on his padded psychologist's chair. Obviously he was waiting for her to say something.

Since she had started seeing Smokescreen the two of them had built up a grudging trust, grudging on her part. She no longer gave him slag at the beginning of each session since she knew that it would only prolong her torment. And maybe he would be able to help her understand how to better deal with her insecurities over her body. "Hey Smokes?"

Smokescreen nodded once to tell her that she could talk.

"Umm I...well you know that I was...raped a lot growing up." At his nod she met his optics with nervousness nearly overwhelming her. "Well I, the twins and I haven't interfaced yet because I'm still so messed up over that. And not just that but...I'm all scarred up and it makes me scared that they won't really want me after they see it. No matter what they say I just can't shake that fear off. Do you know why?"

Smokescreen leaned back in his chair and observed her for a moment. "It's normal to feel like that. The scars may or may not be seen as physically off-putting to some; however another factor is that they showcase a part of yourself that you have tried to hide. Revealing them is very disconcerting for you because it shows others the extent of what you have been through. From what I have observed from you so far, you see them as a weakness and a disfigurement."

She winced at the calm and collected tone.

"However, most of the bots around here do not view scars as such visually repulsive things. Each one of us have our own scars under our armor just like you, and I can also guarantee that Sides and Sunny have many scars as well. Why would they judge you for being a survivor? Those scars that decorate your skin are proof that you have survived things that most would not. You should not be disgusted and ashamed of them, you should be as proud of them as your intended mates are."

She perked up and smiled nervously at him. "Really? You don't think that they will be grossed out?"

"No I don't." Smokes smirked at her. "I think this is the first time that you've ever asked me something like that."

Cocking her head to the side she frowned at him. "Yeah I think it is." She couldn't deny that asking him had been nerve-wracking for her though... But it did make her feel a little bit better. "Thanks Smokes...for the advice and all. It's been bothering me a lot lately."

Smokes waved her off. "Don't worry about it Lilah. It's what I'm here for." He smiled reassuringly at her. "So how about we get back to the story you were telling me yesterday?"

She spent the next joor telling him of the time that she had been experimented on by Shockwave instead of Burstimpact. How they had been trying to find out if the hybrids could be used as a sort of Energon synthesizer, and how they had siphoned the Energon from their bodies through a hose connected to their stomach. Ultimately they hadn't been able to procure enough from their small bodies to be effective so they had reverted back to their original experiments.

Through all of it Smokescreen only nodded or sat there doing and saying nothing. It was all a mask though. Even the very best poker face couldn't stop her from being able to tell what a bot was feeling. And Smokescreen was angry and disgusted, not at her but at the cons. That fact made it easier to talk to him about things. It wasn't that it was necessarily easy to recant these things, but it did seem to help lift the fog around her spark. However painful reliving it was...

All too soon an entire joor had gone by and her time was up. Sides and Sunny were in the door as soon as Smokescreen put his datapad away, they were never far from her during her sessions. Sides came over and scooped her up from the couch quickly depositing her on the same servo where Aednat was laying curled up in recharge. She crawled over to her and laid down beside her with her head propped up on Aednat's stomach. Maybe...just maybe she should just show them all of her scars and get it over with.

Her eyelids felt heavy. With one last look up at the mech that was carrying her she decided to just go for it. Later...and then she would know for sure.

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

Sunstreaker came back from evening patrol around six PM. For some reason he was nervous and on edge like he was expecting something to happen. For that reason he decided that the first thing he needed to do was go and check in on Red and his twin.

There was nothing negative coming over the bond from Sides; he was just watching a movie with their femme in her room.

His twin was content so why was he so worked up and nervous all of a sudden? Thoughts swirling madly in his helm he stopped outside of her door and waited for it to open before stepping inside. Sides looked up and waved upon his arrival. Lilah just turned to him and gestured for him to come over.

So he made his way over and plopped down on the floor near her bed next to Sides. The feeling plaguing his spark didn't die down or waver in the slightest. When Lilah paused the movie and crawled down from Sides lap it only seemed to grow.

Sides finally caught into the rising anxiety he was feeling and turned to him raising an optic ridge. All he did was frown and shake his head without taking his optics off of their femme. Sides finally looked back to her to and raised an optic ridge at her.

Neither of them said anything as she twisted her hair up on top of her head in a messy bun. Her optics were studiously avoiding looking at them. "Umm I want to show you...my scars," she said quietly.

Sides actually choked. "W-what?!"

He smacked his twin on the back of the helm angrily. Turning back to her he cocked his helm to the side. "Is there a reason that you want to do this...?"

She blushed and looked away as her servos came up to clutch at her shirt in a death grip. "Well if I'm ever going to get passed the whole self-deprecation of my own body thing...then I need to show somebot right? Maybe if others can see it and not be grossed out by it then I can to?"

Sides and he shared a look. **'Why do all organics and half organics think that scars are so gross anyways?'**

He just shrugged. **'Don't know. Just don't say anything stupid okay?'**

**'Ok.'**

Lilah took a deep steadying breath and hefted her shirt over her slim stomach, up over her large chest, before removing it completely and tossing it aside. Her servos fell to her side and twitched with what he could only assume was the urge to cover herself.

He really didn't see why she felt that she needed to. Her form was scarred horribly that was true, but her scars themselves were smooth for the most part and clean. Obviously the cons had used precise tools to carve the hybrids instead of just carving into them leaving jagged scars behind. Several flowed from the lining of her pants up to her throat in pale pink lines. There were several more that wrapped around the junction of her neck and shoulders; those were more jagged and angry looking.

More scars littered her arms, obvious burns, and deep gashes. Those were less neat looking, but her servos were by far the worst in terms of how built up the scar tissue was on the outside. Her knuckles had various bumps, probably from her punching bots and breaking her servos on impact. He had seen them before however so he wasn't too surprised.

Slowly he reached out and fingered a smooth scar that curved up from her hip on the right side of her body, to the left side of her ribcage. She flinched slightly but allowed him to continue his explorations. It even felt smooth to him like a flower petal. So this is what she was so ashamed of? This is what had made her pull away from them all those weeks ago after the encounter with Limelight? They would be considered ugly to humans, but not to soldiers like the bots on base. "Turn around baby." He gently prodded her to get her to reveal her back to him.

She did so hesitantly.

Sides vents hitched when her back was exposed to them. It was the exact opposite of the front. Angry burn lines littered every inch of her back in zig zag motions. Obviously it was done with a whip of some sort. Sides leaned forward and fingered them gently.

He frowned sliding his digits gently over a particularly deep one. "You must have been really strong to survive this," he hummed thoughtfully. "What happened?"

"Plasma whip. I can guarantee that each one of these was caused by my foul mouth or temper." She turned to offer them a half grin, one that was part amusement, and part nervousness and fear. "The others aren't as bad as me because they didn't mouth off. Me? I couldn't keep my mouth shut."

He frowned at her and nudged her into his servo. "I really don't see why you're so ashamed of these scars. There's nothing wrong with having them. Having them only means that you were strong enough to survive. Sides and I have scars on our protoforms and we're not ashamed of them."

"C-can I see?" She asked quietly.

He nodded and sat her down so that he could remove his upper armor, gesturing for Sides to do the same to which his twin complied.

Her optics widened when they fell on several deep nasty scars on the center of his protoform that were similar to hers. Sides even had scars that were almost identical to the ones that he had, and at her questioning look he shrugged. "Shockwave likes to experiment on bots too. He wanted to try and figure out ways to tamper with our bond to send signals from one of us to the other. Don't know what exactly he was trying to do but it didn't work."

"He was probably trying to get one of us to do something slagging stupid like attacking Optimus by using the bond. Or maybe he wanted to use it to gather information from us," Sides muttered while sliding his own digits over his scars. His optics suddenly brightened as he held a servo out for Lilah to step onto, and once she was seated he brought her to his chassis and held her there. "Feel."

She looked at his twin for confirmation and at his approving nod she reached out and gently caressed the scars. "They're smooth," she whispered in awe.

He grunted. "Yeah well our technology is far more advanced than anything on this planet babe. Incisions don't scar too often as long as they're treated soon after they were inflicted. Hatchet's pretty good about all of that but sometimes Sides and I just don't tell him that we're injured. Scars are like a soldier's badge of honor so we all have to have at least a couple."

His comment earned him a wide opticked look from her. She suddenly reached for him and he took her into his servos and brought her to his own chassis so that she could explore. "I thought that maybe you guys would be disgusted by my scars so I didn't want to show you."

"We figured that out when you flipped out after Limelight said that slag to you. It's all a load of slag anyways babe, she has just as many scars as the rest of us." He twitched when her servo traced a particularly sensitive scar, on a very sensitive part of his protoform. A sharp pang of heat lit up his nodes torturing him.

Lilah abruptly drew back and smiled sheepishly at him. "Sorry Sunny." She looked down in embarrassment.

"Don't be. We trust you or we wouldn't have exposed ourselves to you like this."

A deep blue blush crept up onto her cheeks as she peered at him from under her bangs shyly. "Yeah and uhh...for what it's worth you look nice without your armor on," she stammered.

Sides chuckled at her and poked at her side making her squeal and bat at his servos. "We always look good sweetspark. But for what it's worth you have a killer frame underneath all those layers you wear. The scars can't detract from that."

"Flirt," Lilah spluttered while the blush rose higher on her cheeks and drifted down to her chest. She spluttered again when their optics landed on the swell of her breasts. "H-Hey optics off!"

"Nope. They are there so I'm gonna stare," Sides teased her.

She spluttered again before she scrambled down onto the floor and hastily dragged her shirt back over her helm. "You two are such perverts!" She laughed sounding much brighter and carefree than she had in a while.

Shrugging both of them put their armor back on. "You're a good looking earthling babe. I believe that the humans would say that you have balloon tits," he repeated what he had heard several of the soldiers call one of the femme soldiers that had started working on the base roughly a week ago.

Lilah gaped at him and pointed at him. "You-what-where did you learn that?!"

Sides looked at her innocently and answered for him. "The human soldiers called a femme that last week. It's a compliment right?"

She smacked herself on the forehead. "Ohhh what am I going to do with you two aftheads?" she groaned quietly. When she looked up again she was blushing even harder. "Umm it can be construed as a compliment to some women. Ummm but to some women it can actually be offensive since usually only males that don't respect women say it."

"Ooooh so that was why that femme jammed her knee joint into that mech's interface panel," Sides nodded once.

"She did?" he asked in confusion.

"Yup. She hit him pretty hard too cause he fell down and started rolling around on the floor going 'Mina bollar! Mina bollar!' Doesn't that mean my balls in Swedish?"

"Umm I guess..." After a quick search of the internet he used the English translator and nodded once. "Yeah it means my balls! My balls!"

Lilah just looked back and forth between the two of them and sighed. "What am I going to do with the two of you?"

Sides grinned. "You'd die from boredom!"

He snorted. "Yeah probably."

Lilah sighed again. "Yeah probably." She looked up at them and shook her head in amusement before smiling gently at them. "Still...thanks for being so cool about my scars guys. I owe you big time for it."

He waved her off. "Don't even worry about it. I think they're pretty hot anyways."

"W-What?!" she spluttered again.

Sides grinned and high fived him. "Nice one Sunny!"

More spluttering... "No really! What am I going to do with you guys?!" Both of them just shrugged. Probably die of boredom!

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><p>R&amp;R! There's still going to be more drama and slag to come! I'm trying to decide on the order that I want things to happen in, and what exactly I want to have happen. So bear with me please. Read! Review! Ooh I almost have a hundred reviews for this story! It's awesome! Anyways see ya next time!<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Yay I found a beta to help edit and all that good stuff! Thanks to cmfanreidsgirl for agreeing to help edit previous chapters and the newer ones! We're almost at 100 reviews now! Keep reading and reviewing it makes my day! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>She sat curled up on her bed with tears leaking from her eyes. Today's session with Smokescreen had been really hard for her despite the fact that she had been seeing him for roughly six months now. There was a trust on her part for him, but trust didn't necessarily mean that it was any easier to talk about things like Moondancer. Smokes had insisted though so she had relented and told him the entire story, even going so far as to stay for an extra few hours.<p>

She had been a crying mess when she had finally been allowed to leave and go with Sides. Wasn't she supposed to feel better after talking about this Slag? And yet here she was feeling worse than she had felt in a long time because she had talked about her danniluk.

It just couldn't be helped. The topic of her danniluk would forever be one of the more sensitive subjects for her to have to discuss. Her spark sang in distress whenever she searched for that bond only to find that it wasn't there, even though she knew when she searched that she would not find it.

For so long she had been alone in her own head. No lilting voice scolding her for doing something that she wasn't supposed to. No reassuring emotions whenever she was scared or sad. Nothing but her own thoughts swirling around in her own head. She had so desperately wanted to go back to that day and change things. And in doing so she had caused herself so much pain because of the blame that she placed on herself.

If somebot had asked her every day for the last six centuries what she would have if she could ask for anything, she would have said "I would do anything to have my danniluk back." She would do anything just to see her face one more time. To apologize for getting her killed. If she just could talk to her one more time she would tell her how much she meant to her even though Moondancer would already know. She would say it anyways.

But she couldn't. She had been forced to face that today and it was hard. Smokes had even told her the same thing that Sides and Sunny had said, that it wasn't her fault. That she couldn't have done anything. She rebuked the thought immediately, but he had insisted that it was true. But she had clung to the guilt for so long that she just couldn't believe it no matter how hard she tried.

So she laid there curled up in her bed, she hadn't even had the spark to let Aednat out to cuddle with her. All she wanted was to be alone with her own thoughts and misery. She choked out a sob and buried her face into her pillow as images of Moondancer's beheading flashed across her mind. It sent unbearable agony through her making her feel like her spark was just slowly extinguishing.

She started crying hard. Loud gut wrenching sobs of pure sorrow that left her gasping for air repeatedly. She dug her fingers into her hair and yanked at it as more images flashed behind her eyes. Her sparklings, danniluk, her siblings all dying over and over again. Sheer agony stabbed her spark making her roll over and clutch at her chest to lessen the pain. She could feel her spark racing in distress; her body was heating up in response sending pain shooting throughout her wires and circuits. In response her dense metallic organs started heating up as well causing intense pain to the more organic flesh surrounding them.

But the physical pain was secondary to the pain in her spark. She just couldn't stop crying and sobbing, she couldn't calm down even though she knew that she was overheating and that it was just as bad for her kind as it was for the bots. She just couldn't make it stop.

Fortunately her senses perked up and picked up on a spark signature rushing towards her door. A familiar one that even managed to bring her a brief flash of comfort. It was quickly chased away when intense agony shot through her spark again making her scream again.

Her body arched up off of the bed as a silent scream of pain fell from her lips. From the corner of her eye she saw her door open up and Ratchet came rushing into her room. Sides rushed in the door behind him making a bee line for the end of her bed while Ratchet came up on her left side.

The CMO took one look at her then scanned her, growling when he processed the results as he took the information in. "Her spark is in distress and it's causing her internals to overheat. We need to get her to the med bay."

He didn't have to tell Sides twice because the next thing she knew she was being safely cradled in her red intended's arms. He cooed down at her as they glided down the hall. The motion was oddly soothing to her frayed nerve endings.

Her spark slowed down just slightly before another haunting image of Moondancer being beheaded invaded her thoughts tearing her momentary peace away. Arching she screamed out loud and thrashed to expel the damn image from her memory.

Sides gently soothed her over with his servo trying to alleviate her fear and probably to keep her from hurting herself. At that moment they entered the med bay and Ratchet instructed Sides to place her on a human sized berth nearby.

She clutched at him when he laid her down and went to leave her side. He immediately settled down on the other side so that Ratchet had space to work. His optics were intensely trained on her, on her panting chest, on the sheen of sweat covering her, to her wide probably crazed looking eyes.

Everything came screeching to a halt when Ratchet's holoform walked over with a syringe in his servos. Her eyes shot to the needle making him and Sides freeze. Her spark sent feelings of panic and confusion through her. What were they trying to sedate her for?

"Sweetling you are panicking. Your internals are overheating. I am going to sedate you so that you will calm down," Ratchet spoke in soft soothing tones, in smaller clipped sentences that her brain could rationalize in its panicked state. He took a step closer to the berth.

She whimpered and scooted away from him as her breathing sped up even more.

"Sweetspark?" Sides murmured making her look over at his worried looking face plates. "Ratchet isn't going to hurt you. That sedative is only going to help you relax okay? I'll be here the whole time so that you feel safe." He reached over her body and gently grabbed her arm between two digits, pulling it out from its bended position so that Ratchet could stick the needle in her arm.

Almost immediately a numbing sensation went through her from head to toe. She felt her spark give a weak stutter before it started thrumming almost sluggishly, at least to her it felt sluggish. Slumping back, her entire body gave one long shudder of relief as its tenseness faded away. The pain quickly fled soon after leaving her blissfully numb. So numb that she didn't even feel it when Ratchet hooked her to an IV. Nor did she notice it when Sunny came barreling into the med bay, closely followed by Smokescreen. Her mind was entirely too fuzzy to even really remember what had upset her in the first place.

Her eyes widened when she felt a gentle caress on her right hand. Turning slowly her eyes landed on Sunny's face plates maybe a foot from her face.

Sunny sent a glare to the other mechs in the room then turned to her focusing on her completely. "Baby are you okay?" he asked quietly.

A small confused noise came from the back of her throat as her eyes went cross eyed from his close proximity. "Why are there two of you? And where's my dad?"

Sunny gave her a confused look then turned to Ratchet. "Ratchet?"

Her eyes followed his gaze and brightened. "Dad!" she exclaimed.

Ratchet's helm snapped over to her in surprise as did every other mech in the room. "Did you just call me dad?" the green mech asked in disbelief.

Deflating she pouted. "Yeah. I never had a dad before so you're going to be my dad."

Sunny looked at her in horror and rapidly shook his helm back and forth in a 'don't you dare' motion. He looked kind of funny and cute...

A small smile tugged at the corner of the CMO's mouth plates. "I wouldn't mind that sweetling. I have already seen you as my own sparkling practically since you got here."

"Yay! Now where's mom? She was just here a second ago I know it!" Her fuzzy eyes roved over the room looking for the beautiful blue femme but she was nowhere to be found. She let out a small noise of frustration and pouted. "Always goes and leaves me alone like this!"

"Ratchet is she okay?" Sunny asked.

"Yes I just gave her a strong sedative to calm her down. Her internals were overheating because her spark was in distress. At this point I think it was the effects of the sparkfracture that she has been repressing for so long. We'll have to keep a close optic on her for anymore spark attacks."

"What's a spark attack? It sounds fun! I want one!" She giggled loudly and kicked her feet into the air.

A snort followed by a servo gently easing her feet back down onto the bed from where she had them propped up at a ninety degree angle. "Baby you just had one, and trust me they're not fun," Sunny muttered.

"Why not? And wasn't dad here a minute ago? Where did he go?" She looked around for her large green opiluk but he was nowhere to be found. At least not in her general vicinity, her eyes finally landed on him near the door talking to Smokescreen. She whined and made a grabby motion with her hands. "Daaaaadddddyyyyy?" she whined. He was ignoring her when she wanted him for herself!

There was a snicker from Sides before a bright red servo eased her hands back down. "Relax sweetspark Ratchet will be back in a klik. And stop doing that or you'll rip your IV out," he admonished her gently.

With another whine she let her hands flop back down to her sides. Her eyes brightened and she immediately started making grabbing motions when her dad turned and came back over to her berth.

He looked at both of her twins warily before he slid down onto his knee joints beside her bed. "Smokescreen thinks that a sparkling/creator bond would help with her sparkfracture."

Both Sides and Sunny stiffened and growled loudly at him.

"Hey don't growl at my dad!" she huffed and giggled because when she huffed it sounded funny.

Her two mechs still didn't stop.

Her dad only growled back and whacked them over the back of the helms with two wrenches that he suddenly pulled out of a bright blue light in his chest. "This can help her with the spark attacks that she may have in the future. And since you two aren't going to bond with her until she is healed enough to go through with a sparkmerging on that level, a creator bond is the next best thing to help stabilize her. Since we already have a close bond I would be best suited to do this."

"But if you do that you won't let us bond with her!" Sunny protested angrily.

There was another loud clang as a dent suddenly appeared on Sunny's helm. She exclaimed in shock and surprise. "Oooh how did you get that dent Stud? Oooh I know! I know! Dad's got mad ninja skills and stuff! He swings that wrench really fast huh?"

The three of them gave her varying looks of amusement, with underlying irritation in the twin's cases before her dad leaned forward and picked her up gently. "I will not keep her from you if I think that she is ready. As much as it pains me to admit it, you two are more attentive to her than most mated mechs are to their femmes. At least you will make good mates," Dad muttered as his chest plates slowly slid open with a hiss. His spark thrummed loudly sounding like it was purring as he brought her into his hold.

Her spark lurched once and rushed through her body to coat her skin with a bright blue glow. She followed her instincts and pressed her hands against the large spark in front of her. Faint feelings of reassurances, love, affection, concern, and various others flowed into her. She sent back her appreciation, love, gratitude, and fears.

_**:Can you hear me sweetling?:**_

She jolted and looked around in wonder. _**:Umm yeah I can hear you.:** _And it sent all kinds of relief through her foggy mind that she had another voice to talk to her in her head. Somebot else that could reassure her with more than just words. It had been so long... A faint image of her danniluk, her mommy flashed through her mind again making her spark whimper longingly.

Her new creator sent feelings of comfort through their new bond as he pulled her out of his sparkling hold and cradled her against his chassis near his face plates. _**:It will be ok. I will protect you.:**_

_**:Promise?:** _she asked and buried her face into his face plates.

_**:I promise. And it is not just I that will protect you, every bot on base will be looking out for you.:**_

She hummed once in contentment. Feeling exhausted she kicked at his hold._** :In.:**_

There was a brief moment before he disconnected her IV and moved her into his sparkling hold. The plates slid shut after her and she curled into the soft silicone like material near his spark. :Night opi.: she murmured once in contentment before she nodded off.

_**:Good recharge sweetling.:**_

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><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Sunny was pissed and for that matter he wasn't necessarily pleased either. Ratchet had formed a creator bond with their femme, all in the sake of helping her! That was fine! But what it also meant was that they had to contend with an overprotective opiluk who, happened to be the CMO and one crazy mother slagger with one hell of an arm!

He guessed that if it helped her, and if Ratchet kept his promise not to keep her from them it was okay. But if he tried to keep her from them it would not end well at all! The worst part of that was that it would hurt Lil if they did anything to Ratchet! So now they had to walk on tippy pedes around the old slagger!

And the worst part yet was that Lil was being moved to Ratchet's quarters! It wasn't far from their room, right down the corridor actually but still! He understood that the bond was going to help her that she had never ever had security and when she had it, it had been ripped away from her too soon for it to be anything but cruel. So part of him was happy that she would have somebot to feel her internal struggle, somebot to help her battle her emotions and prevent more spark attacks! But he still didn't want her far from him and Sunny either.

The bonding had only taken place last night...and he hadn't seen Lil since. And now she was going to be moving in with Ratchet and that meant that he couldn't just walk through the conjoining doors between their room and hers to see her anymore. No he had to go all the way down to Ratchet's quarters and brave the Hatchet just to see his femme.

Sighing he plopped down on his side of the berth and slumped in defeat. He just wanted to bond with her already...but she wasn't ready for the intimacy aspect yet. So this, as much as he hated to admit it, was necessary. And Ratchet, as much as he also hated to admit this, would take very good care of her until the time came that they could bond.

But then that brought on a whole new nightmare! Because then they would have a bond with Ratchet through Lil, so he would be able to sense their emotions and thoughts to a limited extent, and they would be able to sense his. He shuddered just thinking about having Hatchet in his helm.

But he would brave it...for her. Because she was the only one that ever truly could understand them and accept them for all their flaws and good traits. She loved his humor and his cheerful demeanor, but she also understood the darker parts of him and she could relate to both sides of him. It was the same for Sunny, she could understand and accept Sunny's vanity and his arrogance, but she also saw the good spark that was hiding underneath all of that anger and aggression and she could allow herself to focus on that part and love him for it as well as the parts that were so hated by other bots. She was one in a million as some humans would say.

**'Why do you think that I relented and allowed myself to have feelings for her?'** Sunny asked over the bond.

Shrugging and turning to where his brother sat painting on a canvas he replied, **'Because you felt something for her even before that.'**

Sunny didn't respond so he let the whole conversation drop. **'Should we help move her things into Ratchet's quarters?'**

Sunny just grunted.

He sighed and hopped off of the berth to make his way into Lil's room. If Sunny didn't want to help then he would do it himself. Stepping into the room he shifted down to his alt mode and activated his holoform. It took him a minute to get over the initial rush of vertigo that always came when activating his holoform. Once he was steady he moved towards the door of Lil's room and grabbed several large boxes and carted them over to her dresser so that he could start packing her clothes into them.

He didn't get very far in doing that when the doors to the corridor slid open and Lil walked in calmly. Looking up, their optics met, hers filled with tears for some fragging reason and she crossed the room and threw herself at him.

He stumbled and wrapped his arms around her gently. "Sweetspark what's wrong?"

"Are you mad?" she suddenly asked out of nowhere.

Pulling back he made her look him in the optics. "Mad about what?"

Fresh Energon tears spilled over her cheeks. "That I bonded to Ratchet? My spark feels better but I feel like slag about doing it without asking you first."

Taking her face between his servos he gently rubbed the smooth skin in gentle circles as he stared down at her. He dipped his helm down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips before pulling back. "I'm not mad now that you told me that your spark feels better. And I wasn't mad at you per se in the first place."

"What were you mad about?" She sniffled and wiped the tears off of her cheeks.

Her optics were so filled with sadness that it was hurting even his spark. He guessed that she had somehow blocked the bond from Ratchet so that he couldn't feel it or else he would be here threatening him with death or something. "Sweetspark I...I just wish that it could be me and Sunny to help you through this part of your healing. But I know that you aren't ready for the sparkbonding that we would have to do. I'm just so slagged off that those fraggers put you through everything that they did and that you are still suffering so much from it that you can't even move on with your life."

"And Sunny? Is he mad?" More tears filled her optics at the very question.

"Only for the same reason that I am-was. But sweetspark if this helps you get better then I'm all for it. I mean yeah I'm a little bit worried about having to face the Hatchet down whenever the time comes for us to actually bond...but I'll brave it for you Lil." Leaning down he captured her lips with his again more fiercely this time. Just like every other time that he had kissed her he let her control the pace so as not to scare her. He was quite surprised but opened his oral cavity regardless when her glossa flicked passed his holoform's lips.

Her glossa snaked in to tangle with his, not roughly, but gently. Like a soft caress with her just barely making contact with him before moving on to explore every other surfaces of his oral cavity. Maybe this was her way of apologizing, but whatever it was it felt good, and it made him feel how much she loved him. And now he was sounding like a mushy slagger.

She suddenly pulled away and leaned her forehead against his upper chest which was the highest place that she could reach. He noticed that Sunny had made his way into the room at some point during their contact and was now standing just beside his alt mode in holoform.

As soon as they made optic contact his twin pushed himself away from his alt and strode over. Once he was close enough he pulled Lil from his grasp and turned her so that he could dip his helm and kiss her. Sunny's kiss was much more dominating; he was radiating so much irritation and love through the bond. He could tell that every bit of it was being conveyed through his ministrations.

"I love you Red," his twin muttered between kisses. "Ratchet's not gonna keep you from me."

They separated and Lilah gasped in a harsh breath. "He won't. I won't listen even if he does try."

Sunny stared her down intensely. "Do you promise?"

Lil stared him back down just as intensely. "Yes I promise."

Sighing Sunny tightened his hold on her once more before he released her. "Well let's get your stuff packed up okay?"

"Not everything is going. I'm still going to be spending a lot of time here. Optimus said that I can use it as a gaming room or something, and I can sleep here whenever dad has to go on missions. So I'm leaving the bed and most of the stuff in here actually. I just need to get most of my clothes and personal items to move."

He resumed packing her clothes into the boxes. "All right let's get this done. And what are you supposed to sleep on if you're not taking your berth?" He lifted and sorted all of the clothes before placing them into separate boxes to be marked and moved, paying special attention to each set of panties that he came into contact with. Snickering when he remembered her calling him underwear sniffer he shoved another pair of black lace panties into a box.

She came up beside him and started helping him out while Sunny went to pack something else...at least he was assuming that his twin did. "Umm Ratchet had Lennox bring in another bed for me to set up in his quarters. That and his berth is softer than yours since it's covered in padding so I can sleep on that too."

He made a mental note to deck their berth out in that stuff before they sparkbonded so that she could recharge with them. "What about the gaming stuff sweets?"

"It can stay. How else are we supposed to hang out in here if I take my gaming stuff to Ratchet's quarters?" Lil smirked at him.

"True. Well let's get this going then so that Ratchet doesn't come and hunt us down for stealing his sparkling."

"I'm not a sparkling," Lil muttered.

"Sorry youngling," he corrected cheekily earning himself a scathing half glare from her. Yeah they would make this whole situation work he was sure of it.

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><p>The next few days went by in a blur for her after moving into Ratchet's quarters, becoming reaccustomed to the creator bond, and getting used to having her new dad checking up on her every five seconds. The bond was strong though and it eased her internal pain making her sessions with Smokescreen a little bit easier for her. It also helped that her new creator was able to feel what she was feeling and help her interpret why she was feeling that way.<p>

At first she had tried to block him out like she had that first day. But she found that if he really wanted in he was going to get in. Or maybe it was because she wasn't as used to these kinds of bonds as he was? Whatever the case she had gotten used to him popping into her head and asking if she was okay, or if she needed something.

Her real creator had never properly bonded to her. Why would he have when she was just an experiment to him? A variable that meant nothing. She felt her dad's anger quite clearly when he realized that she was thinking of him. She sent out an unspoken apology and focused back on her work.

Right now she was in the med bay; her dad was out meeting with Optimus to discuss something important. So she was left to watch over the med bay since she was the only other medic on base at this point. She was capable of doing basic repairs, and even stabilizing more serious injuries, but those would still have to be treated by her dad.

It still felt weird calling him that. She smiled as she reconnected some wires in Mudflap's side. Yeah it did feel weird to call the CMO her dad when she had never really had one, at least not one that didn't want to rip her apart in a thousand different ways just to see how much she could recover from.

Another rush of anger and worry came pouring through the bond. _**:I hate that slagging glitch with a fragging burning passion!:** _her dad suddenly snarled over the bond.

She finished reconnecting Mudflap's wiring and patted his side gently letting him know that he was good to go. _**:Yeah me too. Me too. So what does Optimus- hold on a second dad.:**_ She trailed off when Skids came over and tackled Mudflap again.

"Hey cut it out! I just fragging fixed him!" she admonished them though it seemed to do no good. They slammed into the berth that she was sitting on and rolled over the top of it smacking her off of it since she hadn't been expecting it. She fell and landed on the floor of the med bay with a loud smack. Instant rage filled the bond along with a primal sounding roar from her dad. Oh slag! He was going to offline them!

Both of them broke apart instantly upon hearing the loud noise. "Oh slag Mudflap! Yo' fraggin idio'! Look at wha' ya did! No' ole Hatchet is gonna have our afts!" Skids smacked his twin over the back of the helm.

Grunting in pain she managed to sit up despite the throbbing in her ribs from being tossed from the high berth. Sturdy she may be, indestructible she was not. Before she could even right herself she was snatched up from the floor by Mudflap. "What the frag are you doing? That hurts!" she gritted out through clenched teeth when the tight hold jostled what were either broken ribs, or severely bruised ribs.

The red minibot said nothing as he and his brother took off out the door of the med bay.

"What the pit are you doing?!" she yelled as she was carted to Primus knows where. Her ribs were protesting, and her dad was fragging livid. She had no doubt that he was tracking her spark signature down right this moment with every intention of murdering the dumb twins.

And it appeared that he would not be the only one because at that moment they passed by Sides and Sunny returning from patrol. Both of their optics landed on her and widened in surprise as she passed by. And then two identical snarls were heard as they came bounding after the idiot twins. "PUT HER DOWN!" Sides roared.

Both of her captors only ran faster; surprisingly fast for their small sizes. Or maybe it was the fact that they were facing certain, probable, almost imminent death at three different sets of servos.

Honestly if she weren't worried about being dropped on her already injured ribs she would just zap them. As it stood she wasn't going to do that because she didn't want to cause further injury to herself, nor did she want one of these idiots to accidentally fall or step on her. So she hung in there as her twins chased the stupid twins down.

A klik later they turned another corner and she saw her dad come shooting around another corner and come barreling down the hallway. If looks could kill Skids and Mudflap would already be long dead she was sure of it. He joined in the chase with Sides and Sunny since apparently three mechs weren't enough to catch Skids and Mudflap.

"Why did you even kidnap me in the first place?" she shouted over the loud angry engines revving so that she could be heard.

"Well we was thin'in tha' if we took yo' Hatchet wouldn' know yo' were injured. But looks like we were wrong yo!" Skids shouted back as Mudflap just nodded once in agreement.

She slumped in the servo that was still squeezing and causing intense pain to her body. She even waved to Jazz and Ironhide as she was carted passed them. This only resulted in Ironhide giving an angry roar and tearing off after the idiots as well, pit even Jazz came rushing to her aid. Her question was how the pit was the chase even still going on?!

Luckily Jazz was super-fast so he caught up with the twins and kicked Mudflap's legs out from under him. Unfortunately his servo suddenly flew open causing her to go flying through the air right over the silver saboteur's helm.

Oh slag! Oh slag! Oh slag! Oh slag! She chanted as she went flying feet over head through the air on a crash course with the floor again. Luckily a large black servo caught her before she could meet certain agony when she smacked into said floor. Unfortunately Ironhide had to lunge to catch her and they went tumbling to the floor jostling her now...probably broken ribs.

She hissed through her teeth at the fresh wave of pain. Unadulterated rage suddenly coursed through her but it wasn't her own, it was her dad's. A green servo suddenly snatched her up as a tingling sensation ghosted over her body making her squirm and wriggle to get away from it.

Her dad snarled angrily. "You two incompetent fraggers broke three of her ribs and bruised the majority of the others during your little stunt!"

Angry growls sounded from the gathered mechs, none were louder than the twins though. Both of them came around to her side to get a better look at her as Ratchet pulled her shirt up. Their vents hitched and they whipped around in Skid's, and Mudflap's direction angrily. "DON'T YOU EVER-" They both started only to suddenly cut off and roar angrily before they threw themselves at Skids and Mudflap proceeding to beat them both senseless.

While they were doing that her dad turned and carted her back to the med bay. _**:What exactly happened to bring all of this on sweetling?:** _he asked through the bond while they walked.

_**:Ummm well they got into a fight and Mudflap needed some basic repairs so I fixed him...Then they got into another fight and I ended up getting knocked down off the medical berth. I hit the floor pretty hard and bruised some of my ribs or maybe cracked them. And then Mudflap picked me up none too gently and probably proceeded to break the ribs that were already cracked.:** _She took in a deep breath and grunted when even that hurt. Damn fraggers were going to get zapped by her one of these days she swore it!

They got to the med bay quickly and she found herself placed on a medical berth, as the patient this time... Her dad quickly set her up with an IV and pain suppressors despite her protests that she didn't want them. He only reprimanded her over the bond and proceeded to do it anyways.

At that point her twins came bursting into the med bay looking angry and worried. "I'm going to fragging murder those slaggers in a thousand different ways after you tell us if she's going to be okay!" Sunny practically roared as he stomped over to where she was laying. "Are you okay baby? Do you want us to bring their deactivated frames as an offering after we butcher them?" he asked in all seriousness.

"Umm no I don't. I don't think that Optimus will want you to offline them either." She winced when her dad came over and used his holoform to start setting her ribs. It didn't hurt thanks to the pain suppressors, but she could still feel the dense bones sliding back into place and it was disconcerting. "They're idiots but the injuries aren't too bad really. Just a few broken ri-" She snapped her mouth shut berating herself for having another moment of stupidity when she almost said something incredibly stupid. If she wanted Skids and Mudflap to live...she needed to be quiet.

Unfortunately her dad did not really care either way whether those two lived. He started cursing their designations as he worked on setting her bones. "Stupid slaggers! How dare they harm my youngling! Breaking her bones!"

She was pretty sure that she felt one lone bead of sweat roll down from her temple like people often did in animes and stuff. Yup Skids and Mudflap were probably going to die. If Prowl didn't brig them fast enough and keep them in there long enough for the mechs to get over their-no they would never get over their anger...look at who she was talking about. "Dad you can't kill them. Neither can you Sides and Sunny!" she pointed at each of them individually and gave them 'the look' as Sides had dubbed it. "I'll be slagged off if you do anything to them!"

Sides scowled at her. "But they hurt you sweetspark! They deserve to be hurt back!"

She narrowed her eyes on them. "And you already did that didn't you?"

"Not enough," Sunny protested.

_**:I agree with Sunstreaker...they were not hurt enough.:**_

Obviously she was fighting a losing battle here so she let the matter drop. She was confident that Optimus would not allow the three of them to murder Skids or Mudflap. At least she was hoping that he would support her on this.

Her ribs were set quickly and bindings were wrapped around her chest to hold the bones in place. Her dad gave her a stern look when he had finished. "I do not want you straining yourself until these heal do you hear me?"

"Yes dad I hear you," she sighed.

"Good now you are free to go so long as you remember what I said." Those normally stern blue optics lit up for a second before he turned and grabbed a small bottle to hand to her. "And take these if you are in any pain. I will not let you suffer for the stupidity of others. You will take them as needed," he added in a no nonsense tone.

Groaning she took the offered bottle and sat up with some help from Sides, more like he picked her up as soon as her dad had disconnected her from her IV. She let her discontented feelings flow through her creator bond, receiving a firm sense of sternness in return. She let it drop as Sides turned and carried her from the room. When the bond suddenly dulled down she tensed, she could pretty much guess what was going to happen to the idiot twins just from that. Poor slagging bastards.

"So what do you two want to do since I'm on lockdown today?" she asked conversationally when they entered her old room.

Sides shrugged and sat her down on her bed gently like she was a piece of glass. "What do you want to do? You can watch us hunt down Skids and Mudflap for another beating if you want?" He grinned from ear to ear, except he didn't have ears so it was really weird. Creepy...and weird.

"No," she deadpanned while sliding off of her old bed. "How about we watch...Clannad?!"

"Clan what?" Sunny muttered rather intelligently.

"Clannad? You know the tear jerk-oh never mind you guys won't like that cause it's kind of girly. Ummmm let's watch Napoleon Dynamite!"

Both of them shared a look as she hobbled over to her TV and grabbed the DVD pile near the top. She quickly found her desired title and slid the disc into her XBOX ONE before hobbling back over and scrambling, she said that subjectively because it was more like she was picked up and placed, onto Sides lap. The first scene of the movie popped up so she got comfortable on Sides lap. She loved this movie!

* * *

><p>Roughly two hours later, and a lot of laughing and snickering on her and the twin's parts, the movie finally ended. She knew that both of them had enjoyed it, even Sunny had laughed a couple times like when Napoleon and his brother had gotten into it in the living room and Napoleon had bitch slapped him before running to the door resulting in his brother calling him a bitch in a whiny tone. That was one of her favorite scenes in the movie honestly.<p>

The only problem with watching a good comedy movie when you had broken ribs was that laughing so much made her ribs hurt worse. Up until now she had hidden her discomfort rather well since both of them were so engrossed in the movie that they were paying minimal attention to her. But now their attention was completely trained on her.

If she didn't say anything or do anything to draw attention then she would be fine. Right? Right. Unfortunately she overlooked the fact that they had basic medical scanners because the next thing she knew there was a tingling feeling sweeping over her.

And then Sunny was in her face frowning at her. "Take your medicine."

Pursing her lips she turned and looked pointedly at the wall. "No," she muttered like a petulant child. At least that was what she sounded like to her own ears.

"I'll com Ratchet," he threatened her while jiggling the bottle of pills that he had subspaced after leaving the med bay.

"No you won't because then he'll take me back to our room for the night." And if there was anything that she knew that these two wouldn't want, it was for her to be taken from them even briefly. So she would play on that because she knew it was her best chance at avoiding those pills.

"Fine," Sunny drew back and crossed his arms across his chassis, while Sides just sat there shaking his helm at her stubbornness.

Just when she had thought that she had won their little contest she felt a reprimanding anger come through her creator bond. Yeah she still wasn't completely used to the bond yet so it startled her so badly that she fell from her perch. Luckily Sides caught her before she could worsen her injuries. _**:LILAH TAKE YOUR PAIN PILLS RIGHT NOW!:** _her dad suddenly snarled over the bond.

_**:But dad...I don't want to take them!:** _she whined pitifully while it occurred to her rather suddenly that this was the first actual creator bond that she had ever had with a mech. Really she had realized it earlier, but she hadn't really thought much of the significance until now when Ratchet was actually acting like a reprimanding father. It made her giddy all of a sudden!

There was a brief surge of amusement and affection before the earlier irritation and anger replaced it._** :Take them right now. Do not make me come and make you.:** _he threatened.

She whined and kicked her feet like a petulant child. _**:No.:** _This was actually somewhat amusing to her! The last time that she had done this was when Moondancer had tried to make her take a bath and she hadn't wanted to. Thinking about her brought the familiar rush of pain, but it was muted this time by her opiluk.

There was a snarl over the bond before it suddenly went silent. But the real world didn't stay that way for long. The next thing that registered to her was angry pedes stomping down the hall outside the doors to her old room. She tensed as the door slid open to reveal her dad. By reflex she turned and prodded at Sides carrying hold so that she could hide in it, but he refused to open it.

And before she could make a dash to anywhere else she was snatched from his lap and brought to face level with her dad. His angry vents ghosted over her face tickling her skin and making her sweat. She racked her brain for something to do to make him spare her from taking those pills before deciding that giving him the puppy dog look was her best bet. She widened her eyes and pouted her bottom lip out, grinning internally when his angry face faltered slightly.

_**:Do. Not. Test. Me.:** _he gritted out.

_**:I'm not.:** _she replied in a sugary sweet tone.

_**:Good.:**_

Before she could comprehend what that meant she was firmly grasped in his servo while he held Sunny's holoform in his other servo. He brought the blonde representation of Sunny over to where she was and her intended mate placed his servos at her mouth and pried it open so that he could quickly shove a pill inside her mouth. Immediately her mouth was forced shut so that she couldn't expel the damn thing which she was none too pleased about. _**:DAAAD!:**_

_**:JUST SWALLOW IT ALREADY!:** _he shouted back.

Being stubborn she refused to swallow it as she kicked her feet angrily in the air. _**:NOOOOOO!:**_

Another growl came from her dad, and he must have said something to Sunny because almost immediately the holoform's servos were at her neck massaging it to make her swallowing reflex kick in.

She fought the urge to swallow for as long as she could, while spewing all kinds of threats and promises of redemption to every gathered mech in this room, before she finally lost the battle and swallowed the damn thing. She gagged slightly as it slid down her throat which was still being massaged by Sunny so that she couldn't just gag it back up.

Sunny's holoform suddenly dissipated once his task was complete.

As soon as her torment was over she glared angrily at him and Sides. "Traitors!" she accused in a whiny voice.

Both of them shrugged before Sides responded. "You needed to take your medicine and Hatchet will have our afts if we don't make sure that you do."

"I'll have your afts for this slag soon enough just you wait," she grinned evilly at them at which point they shifted almost nervously under her mischievous gaze. Oh yes she was going to get them back for this.

_**:Oh stop being such a sparkling about it sweetling. Well you are technically a sparkling compared to every bot on base but still. You have an adult capacity for thought so use it and stop whining.:**_

Pouting she kicked her feet again. _**:So mean.:**_

_**:No I am just being a good opiluk.:** _her dad argued as he sat her down on the floor gently. _**:I will give you a moment to say good night to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. I will be waiting in the hall for you.:**_ With that he stood and left the room to give them a moment of privacy.

As soon as he was gone she turned and stalked over to Sunny and kicked his shin before pointing at him angrily. "Traitor! Next time you need a polish don't ask me!" Spinning around she proceeded to give him the silent treatment.

There was a deep sigh from her golden Sunshine mech. "I won't apologize for making you take your pain pills."

She squeaked when she was suddenly grabbed from the floor and pulled up to Sunny's face. He proceeded to gently nuzzle her, even going so far as to slant his mouth plates over her lips. When he pulled back he was smirking at her. "I love you baby."

He passed her over to Sides and he repeated step for step what his brother had done. "Love you sweetspark. Come see us in the morning okay?"

"Ok." Her feet met the ground again and with one last look at the two of them she turned and walked out the door, but part of her spark stayed there with them like it always did. The familiar yet unfamiliar sense of comfort washed over the bond between her and Ratchet as she made her way over to him.

_**:You will see them in the morning sweetling.:** _he promised her as he lifted her gently from the floor and carried her in the direction of their living quarters.

_**:Yeah...I know. I just always miss them when I leave them behind.:**_

They reached their quarters and she was carried inside. Through the living room with the couch sitting opposite of a huge flat screen TV, passed a metal coffee table sitting in front of the couch, through a large storage section where Energon was stored, and down the hallway to their shared room.

She was set down as soon as she stepped inside. Her living space was situated on a raised platform that was level with her dad's berth. It contained the new bed that had been procured for her, her dresser, desk, and even a flat screen TV situated on an entertainment center sitting several feet down from the foot of her bed. The living space itself had short rails that came up to prevent her from accidentally falling off somehow, and there was even a curtained section near her dresser where she could dress herself in privacy.

She bypassed it however and started up the ladder that her dad had attached to his berth so that she could get up and down from it whenever she needed to. It just felt better to sleep close to him for some reason and it prevented nightmares. He never complained or told her that she couldn't anyways.

Crawling up onto the padded berth she made her way over to where her pillow and blanket were sitting near the wall. She grabbed them and curled up in a comfortable position as her creator came over and hefted himself up onto the berth as well. One of his servos cupped around her and pulled her closer to his chassis. Snuggling into him she sent feelings of contentment and gratitude to him again before she started drifting off.

Her last thought was how thankful she was that he even wanted to deal with a fragged up glitch like her...that he and the twins were still with her. That they would always be with her, and how happy that made her.

She was out before she even felt the love and gratitude that he sent back. _**:Good recharge my sparkling.:**_

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><p>YAY I MADE RATCHET BOND AS HER OPILUK! I was actually planning on doing it sooner but it just didn't fit the way that I wanted so I finally made it happen yay! Anyways please R&amp;R so that we can finally reach 100 reviews! Thanks to anybot that R&amp;R's in advance!<p> 


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Thanks for all the reviews and positive comments last chapter guys! I know that at one point I said that this story took place after the third movie, but I, for some reason messed my timeline up so this story is going to take place before the third movie. I'm still not sure if I want to follow the rest of canon or not. Let me know what you all think! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>She could feel them coming quite clearly. It had taken Estelle long enough but she had finally come to her senses and decided to return to the base. And she would be arriving any astrosecond now. Perhaps it would be a good idea to inform Optimus ahead of time if Arcee had not done it herself.<p>

Her dad was out working in the med bay with the newest addition to the base. A mech named First Aid who had landed several weeks prior. Now her assistance wasn't needed so much in the med bay but she continued her training anyways because she enjoyed it.

She got up from her bed and bounded over to the ladder that led down to the floor so that she could slide down it. As soon as her feet hit solid ground she took off through the door into the main living quarters. One of these days she would have to get Jacky to make her a communication device to use so that she didn't have to go on a marathon run to find somebot that she needed to talk to.

Oh well no sense complaining about what could be. The door slid open when she punched the keycode in, and she slid out. Taking off down the corridor towards where she could sense Optimus's spark signature she bypassed Jazz, Ironhide, and a still dented Skids and Mudflap. She waved at each of them before turning a corner and bounding down another hallway. Vaguely she wondered where Sides and Sunny were. She could sense them on base somewhere but they hadn't come to find her yet today.

Shrugging it off as she stopped in front of the massive doors to Optimus's office, she pressed the button to alert him to her presence and waited.

Several astroseconds later the door slid open to reveal the Autobot leader. His optics landed on her in a mixture of surprise and warmth. "Lilah it is good to see you. Was there something that you needed? Or did you merely wish to spend some time with me?"

"Ah well I needed to inform you that Estelle and the others are on their way back with Arcee. I wasn't sure if Arcee had commed you yet, and I didn't want a giant fight to go down when they waltzed into the hangar. Besides we should probably meet them outside the base since Galloway is here today." Bastard hadn't stopped giving her weird looks in months and it creeped her out. For some reason she just knew that he knew something that he really shouldn't and that he was planning on using whatever he knew for what he did best. Which was being a fragging nuisance to the world.

Optimus stepped out of his office and knelt down before her. "I will comm Ironhide, Ratchet, and the twins to come with us." He offered her a servo which she stepped onto easily. He lifted her up to sit on his shoulder, making sure that she was steady and comfortable before he started down the hall in the direction of the main hangar.

"Maybe you should have Prowl work on some aliases for them too? That way they have something working for them. And if I may make a suggestion Estelle is a great tactician even if she is a glitch. Jezz and Annie are probably best suited for being gunners, and Miata would be a better tracker. As for Demetri...well the red optics aren't exactly helping his case any. I know that certain bots have optics that switch color, like Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. I also know that it means that they were of mixed birth, and luckily Demetri's optics shift between red and blue when he's pissed. So we can try using that and saying that he's an Auto bot if we paint an insignia on him." She was rambling but she was just so nervous about what was going to happen today. Estelle would not just come here with no safety plans or terms that she would expect to be followed. Right now she was just trying to figure out what exactly she would want.

Optimus hummed thoughtfully as they turned another corner and started down the hallway. "You know much about our race. I will assume that it is from your danniluk."

"Yeah my danni...mommy."

His optics shifted to her and softened. "I am sure that she is proud of you for the strength that you exude." Before she could comment he looked back ahead. "As for your other suggestions, you know them all better than any of us do. But if I may enquire, why do you think that Miata would make a good tracker? I can understand being a gunner or a tactician in Estellise's case. Does Miata have a heightened olfactory sense like we do?"

She giggled at the confused look on his face plates. "We all have a heightened olfactory sense Optimus. Miata's however is much stronger than mine or the other hybrids. Everybot has their talent and Miata's is her tracking ability. Her senses of smell, sight, and hearing are very advanced. So advanced in fact that they can aid her in actual battle in a manner that is almost as effective as my precognitive sensory skills."

He looked back at her again in surprise. "Really? That is very interesting."

She shrugged once as they turned into the main hangar where the other bots he had commed were waiting. "Yeah I guess."

Sides came bounding over to her grinning as he offered her his own servo to climb onto.

"Well Optimus I had fun talking to you even if it was not a particularly fun subject to talk about. Let's do it again okay?" Climbing into the bright red servo she turned and offered a small smile to the red and blue mech. She hadn't spent a lot of time with him yet, but he was very nice to talk to.

Optimus just nodded once at her. "Of course." He turned back to the other bots gathered and straightened himself up to speak. "You all know why I have asked you to gather here."

Sides slid back next to Sunny and her dad. "Because Lil's super ninja mind skills told her that the other hybrid pit spawns are coming right?"

Her dad glared at him. _**:I truly cannot see what you see in these two sweetling.:** _he groused while patting her head distractedly.

_**:Umm well they're actually a lot like me dad. You just don't really know how crazy I can-wait you do know how crazy I can be so why question it?:**_

There was the sense of disgruntlement over the bond for just a moment before it disappeared. Her dad concentrated back on what Optimus was saying but his servo never left her back. There was a sense of contentedness when he touched her that soothed her. She loved the new creator bond.

Something prodded at her other side making her look up to Sides grinning face. "Can we beat Demetri's aft again?"

"You would say something like that Sides." As amusing as it was to envision it, she had no doubt that Estelle would not appreciate the twins beating on her son even if he was an afthole. In fact she was certain that one of her rules or terms was that Demetri and the twins were kept apart for the safety of all three of them. And after they outfitted Demetri with actual guns it was definitely going to be important...if they outfitted him with guns. "Sorry Sides but I don't think that it's a good idea for you to do that. Estelle's going to have her terms that she is going to expect to be followed so don't be surprised if one of them is that you two don't have contact with Demetri."

Sunny snorted. "What? Is he a prissy little glitch that can't even look out for himself?"

Was it a mech thing that meant you just had to be macho to the point that it bordered on stupidity? Obviously it was. Good thing there were femmes here to keep the mechs from doing incredibly stupid things. For the most part anyways. "Demetri is an afthole Sunny, but he isn't as weak as you might think. The only reason that he got his aft kicked was because it was both of you, the two best frontliners in the Auto bot army against him. He's actually pretty good at servo to servo combat, and he has several failsafe weapons hidden all over his frame. The only thing that he doesn't have is a gun because the cons didn't want to take any chances with him. Trust me he wouldn't have survived this long if he didn't know how to use them."

Both of them looked put off for some reason. "What? Do you think that he can take us one on one?" Sides suddenly pouted.

Spluttering she hastened to say something to heal the damage that she had done to their egos. "No! I never said that! I just meant that you shouldn't underestimate him not only for those reasons, but also for the fact that he hates you both with a passion. When you hate somebot you're capable of doing almost anything to them and I don't want to see him stab one of you in the back over me." Thinking fast she held her hands out for Sides face running her hands over the smooth metal when he leaned down towards her. "Just try and behave for me okay? No fighting if it can be avoided...and no killing him either."

Sides pouted but nodded reluctantly while Sunny just scowled and grunted out an affirmation.

_**:I say we let them kill him. He was unfaithful to my sparkling.:**_

Whirling around she looked at her dad in surprise. He was scowling and looking every bit as irritated and disgruntled as the emotions he was sending through their bond. _**:Dad do I need to tell you to behave as well?! You're the CMO and that means that you will probably be treating Demetri at some point so you have to get over this homicidal rage you feel towards him.:** _Honestly the sheer amount of anger and killing intent that was surrounding these three was off the fragging charts. The only way that she could imagine there being anymore was if Shockwave himself fell through the ceiling...but she didn't really want to see him to find out.

_**:Oh but I do.:** _her dad muttered darkly over the bond.

She shrunk back slightly from him and looked around nervously receiving a wave of amusement coursing through the creator bond. Ok yeah she was getting really freaked out by the sheer level of killing intent over here... Sure she was the kind of femme that liked a good fight and even offlining cons. But having three homicidal maniacs crowding her while sending wave after wave of killing intent was fraying her nerves. Maybe they had forgotten that she was also empathic as well? Well she would have to remind them. "Hey empath down here remember? All the influx of killing intent is making me sick so cool it."

"Can't you just turn that off?" her lovable Sunshine mech questioned.

Scowling she turned narrowed eyes onto him. "Sunny I'm not a bot. I can't just send a little message from my brain to the rest of my body saying 'hey this is making me sick please stop it.' My body is half organic you know!" She huffed and turned away from him. "Stop it or else I'm going to ride with Optimus and not any of you."

Sides stiffened, Sunny growled, and her dad growled at her over their sparkbond. _**:No I get to take you this time.:**_

_**:Only if you stop making me wanna kill something too!:**_ Their emotions were already making her itch to tear into something! Detrimental to her need to stay calm since she would be the one to speak to Estelle on their behalf most likely, and maybe Optimus. But Estelle would not take anything that he said at face value so it would be up to her to steer this meeting in a positive direction. Oh joy...

Another angry huff. _**:Fine.:** _And then he was plucking her out of Sides servo.

"Hey!" Sides protested in a whiny tone.

"Frag off half bit! I'm taking MY sparkling to the meeting spot. You can take her next time we're deployed." her dad snarled.

Slumping down in defeat against her dad's chassis she just waited for Optimus to finish giving orders out. No attacking, no threatening, no antagonizing, etc... All orders that were laid in place for anybot but Optimus himself since every single one of them besides himself were prone to acts of violence.

After what seemed like forever, she was actually about to fall asleep, he finally gave the order to move out. "Autobots move out!"

She was placed gently into her dad's sparkling hold as his frame shifted around her. Metal bent to form the body of the search and rescue hummer, the soft padding of his hold shifted into a ninety degree angle to form the soft seats she was now seated on.

His engine roared to life suddenly startling her just slightly since she was still half asleep. She felt him glide forward on his wheels, after he wrapped his seatbelt around her of course. And that was after he sent her a reprimanding feeling through the bond for not immediately doing it herself. She just shrugged and curled up into the seat as she was clicked in.

They drove out of the main hangar. _**:The others are roughly twenty five miles to the east of here. Arcee is with them.:**_

_**:I will let Optimus know. Just rest and I will wake you when we get there.:**_

He didn't need to tell her twice. Laying her head against the seat darkness seemed to creep up on her and take her under in astroseconds.

* * *

><p>When she awoke sometime later she was no longer resting safely in her dad's cab. Instead she was being cradled gently against his chassis. She stretched and looked around her eyes landing on Optimus kneeling on the ground in front of Estelle.<p>

_**:Did you have a good recharge?:**_

Groaning she nodded once before yawning and sitting up in his servos. _**:Optimus is actually talking to them and there's no yelling yet?:**_

There was silence through the bond for a moment. _**:She is being surprisingly agreeable. However I believe that Optimus would still like your assistance in reassuring them that they will be safe.:** _He snorted internally as he bent to sit her on the ground. At her questioning look he frowned. _**:They still do not want us near them. It is best if I do not come any closer.:**_

Nodding once she turned and walked passed Sides and Sunny, patting their legs gently as she did so.

Estelle looked up when she approached giving her a strained smile and a nod. "Lily. Your...friend says that his offer still stands."

She stopped beside Optimus and nodded once in response. "Of course it does. Optimus is a pretty cool guy Estelle. He would never make a promise or an offer then retract it after he made it."

Estelle shifted almost uncomfortably on her feet. "And you are still well?"

"Yeah I'm great." For show she turned and showcased her whole body so that they could see that she was healthy and well. So far Estelle was acting just like she thought that she would with the exception of how calm she was being. In fact it clued her in to the fact that something must have happened since they last met. Call her paranoid, or maybe it was the fact that she was nothing but a giant super sensor. "Stelle? Something happen since we last met?" She looked at Arcee over Estelle's head and the purple femme nodded once.

Estelle grimaced. "Yes something did happen." She hesitated and turned to her completely, obviously dismissing Optimus completely or mostly. "Several days ago one of the Decepticons came to us with an interesting offer."

Every Auto bot stiffened, she stiffened but she hid it better than they did. "Stelle what did they say to you?"

Her old friend sighed looking frustrated with herself. "They offered us sanctuary in exchange for our abilities...all of them. Of course I told them hell no. I would never go back to them nor would I allow any of the others to. But it was disconcerting that they managed to find us like they did since we can dampen our signatures down so that they cannot sense us." Paranoid blue eyes glanced at the other gathered bots nervously. Still cold and mistrusting yet somehow resigned to the fact that they had to be here. They drifted back to her and locked on her. "You were right Lily. I don't want to think about what will happen to the others if they get their hands on us again. No I don't need to think, I know what will happen. So..." She sighed and slumped almost in a defeated manner eyes never leaving hers. "I trust you. If you say that these mechs can be trusted then I will trust your judgment. We need your help...and theirs."

She could see how much it hurt Estelle to even ask for help after being the strong pillar for so long. Always acting as the mother of the group, always reassuring them when they were scared, always loving them as if they were her own. Just as they had always loved her, even she had, though she had never seen Estelle as her mother. That did not mean that the woman had not been there to comfort her when she needed it. Because she had been there, she had been her strong pillar as well when she was little and scared. All of them had been.

Stepping forward she gently placed a hand on Estelle's shoulder. "I would never turn you away no matter how angry I was at you."

Estelle scowled at her.

Grinning she continued on anyways. "I promise that you will be well taken care of Stelle. And the others will be well cared for also." Grinning wider she nudged the black haired woman playfully. "Besides it's been a while since I last had a decent spar with someone that could keep up with me. We can have a few goes when we get back huh?"

That earned her a small grin from Estelle in return. "You're on." Her face turned stern again suddenly meaning that she was about to lay down her terms. "However I would like to make some requests to this arrangement." At this point she turned to Optimus.

Optimus nodded at her once to tell her to go ahead.

"First and foremost I need to ensure that the others are safe should I not be there to protect them. So I must politely ask that you ensure that your bots understand that violence of any kind will not be tolerated, and I mean this specifically against those two." She pointed at Sides and Sunny who had the audacity to grin pointedly at Demetri. Estelle scowled at them and turned uncertain eyes back on her.

"Sunny! Sides! Cut it out! Do not make me sic dad on you!" There were several startled gasps from the gathered hybrids; she ignored them however in favor of leering angrily at her intended mates. She also had to force herself to ignore the heated optics that she could feel burning into her back.

Both mechs scowled, or pouted in Sides case. Smiling smugly she turned to Estelle and nodded. "They will behave I promise. If they don't I will take them to the brig myself." There was an indignant 'hey' from Sideswipe which she ignored.

Estelle looked at her weirdly for a moment before she turned to Optimus and continued where she had left off. "Also I would like to request that at least two of us be together at any one time so that the others do not feel overwhelmed by the mechs gathered on base. As you can imagine it can be very disconcerting to be cornered by a bot alone."

"That is acceptable," Optimus stated in his strong baritone.

"And I would like to request that Arcee continue to act as our Guardian."

The gathered bots looked surprised save for Arcee. She was not so surprised since the fear, while it did extend to all bots, was more centered on mechs. So it had been a smart move for Optimus to send a femme as their protector as they would feel more comfortable with her than they would with Ironhide, or even somebot as benign and gentle as Bluestreak.

"If she would accept the task I would have no issues with it so long as she was able to continue with her own tasks. In those cases you may fall back on each other until she returns."

Estelle nodded at Optimus. "Please do not make me regret placing the others in this position. I am here because I know that I alone cannot continue to protect them. So please do not betray the unwilling trust that we are now placing with you."

In moments like these she actually felt bad for Estelle. Because she could feel it in this other woman who was looking up at Optimus with a perfect poker face, she could feel the fear and uncertainty that was perfectly hidden behind that mask, the doubts which swirled madly inside of her head. If it were not for her being with the Auto bots she was sure that Estelle would have simply ran again instead of turning to anybot else to rely on.

Optimus seemed to sense her raging emotions as well for he merely looked down at Estelle with a look of pure gentleness and reassurance. "I swear that nobot will betray the trust that you have placed with me. You will not suffer as you have before while in our care. I give you my word as Prime." He held his servo out to Estelle and she took it hesitantly in her own hand.

Against her own will she grinned again. Her friends were going to be back with her again, and while she was still pissed at Miata and Demetri she was still happy to have all of them back. Of course she would have to take Demetri aside and tell him in no uncertain terms where her love and loyalty lay so that they did not have a repeat of what had happened the last time he had met the twins. That could wait until they returned...all of them together.

For the first time in a long time the guilt of abandoning them eased completely. At least for now.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

The first few days after the hybrids were moved into the base were hectic at best. Both he and Sunny had been forced to sparkling sit Annie and Jezz while the other bots were busy setting up alias's to use for the others, and Lilah had been busy with Ratchet giving the other two femmes and Demetri a checkup.

After that it had been a whirlwind of slag flying by in a chaotic blur of absolute madness. Every time he turned around one of the hybrid twins was there doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. AKA pranking somebot and almost getting their afts thrown into the brig. Prowl was hesitant to throw them into the brig, but he was rapidly losing patience with the sheer rate at which they were dishing out pranks.

Already they had super glued Ironhide to a chair with special adhesive that was so strong that Ironhide could not just be pulled off of the chair. No he had to drop his aft plating just to get off of the chair. After that they had somehow gotten their servos on Sunny's paint while his twin was in recharge. They had proceeded to paint him pink with little green and yellow flowers all over him. Needless to say Sunny had flipped a glitch fit and stormed around the base destroying whatever was in his way. Which he had been brigged for. They had only found out that it was Annie and Jezz when the two of them had come down to visit Sunny in the brig where they let it slip that he looked good with their paint job. Now both of them were on Sunny's slag list for life.

It made day to day life even more hectic than it already was. And the worst part was that Lil had been busy showing the hybrids around and getting them acquainted with the other bots, that she hadn't been able to spend nearly as much time with them as they wanted.

Luckily for them today was going to be a slow day. All of the hybrids had received a fitting alias' to use, meaning they had to learn how to make themselves appear to match them. So all of them were in training for the entire day including the demon twins.

Now he and Sunny were planning on making up for lost time with their intended mate since they both had an off day. The only problem was that they couldn't seem to find her anywhere. They had already checked the cafeteria, med bay, her rooms, the hangar, outside the base... The only place left to check was the rec room.

Sharing a look with Sunny he turned and veered in that direction following Lilah's relatively fresh scent. As they drew closer to the rec room he couldn't help but to get excited that they would be stealing her for the whole day!

"Look Demetri we need to talk."

His frame froze just outside of the rec room door. He felt more than saw Sunny do the same thing. Peering around the corner he met the sight of the side of Demetri's helm. The black mech was seated on the rec room couch with Lil standing just opposite of him on the back of the couch.

A seething kind of anger wafted through their sparkbond. Other than that Sunny did not comment or say a word.

"About what Lily? About the fact that you replaced me with those mechs?" Demetri stared her down angrily. "I understand that you were angry about what happened lo-"

"Don't call me that!" Lil snapped back before he could finish his sentence. "I am not in love with you! And I doubt that you ever really loved me either!"

An audible sound of denta being ground together reached his audio receptors from the black mech. He tensed waiting for him to make a move towards Lil so that he could have an excuse for beating his aft. Sunny's own eagerness to do just that was making it hard for him to stay still and calm.

"How dare you think to know what I feel?!" With a growl Demetri shot up from his seat and started pacing around the room. "One mistake while I was overcharged! That's what happened Lily! Miata and I were drinking high grade pretty heavily that night! I don't even really remember interfacing with her! About the only thing that I remember is waking up next to her the next morning!"

Lil scowled at him and crossed the distance between one end of the couch and the next so that she was closer to him. "And that makes it okay? That you were overcharged and faced her? Is that some kind of half aft excuse?"

Demetri spun on her throwing his servos in the air in exasperation. "No! But what you did wasn't any better! You could have at least given me the chance to explain before you took off! But you didn't even say a word to me!" The black mech spun back around and resumed his pacing again. "I was worried that something had happened to you! I was worried that you had died or something! Do you have any idea what that was like? Living your life thinking that the woman that you love is dead?!"

He had to bite back an audible growl at that part. He growled low in anger over the bond just to alleviate some of the growing aggravation. Sunny returned the growl with one of his own letting him feel that he was completely with him on this. Both of them were barely able to keep their gladiatorial programming at bay when that fragger was spewing slag like that. She. Was. THEIRS!

Lil scowled and turned away from him with a livid expression on her face. "Do you have any idea what it was like to come back and find the mech that you thought you were going to sparkbond to fragging a femme that you affectionately thought of as a sister?!" She whirled back around on Demetri and pointed an accusing digit at him. "Nothing that you say will change that! No amount of apologizing or explaining! And I didn't even come here to try and work anything out in the first place Demetri! I came here to tell you to keep your distance so that the twins don't kill you!"

Demetri's engines revved angrily. "What if I want to work it out?!" he yelled.

Both of them tensed when the towering form of the mech leaned down over their femme on the couch. The only thing that was keeping them in place at this point was their promise to her. They had promised to try, and well they were trying really hard. But trying only went so far, and their gladiatorial programming was already starting to go haywire.

"I DON'T WANT TO WORK IT OUT DEMETRI!" Lil shouted back at the top of her lungs. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THAT?! I'VE HAD CENTURIES TO GET OVER YOU AND NOW I'VE FOUND SOMEBOT THAT I DON'T EVER WANT TO GET OVER! I LOVE THEM MORE THAN I EVER LOVED YOU!"

Everything seemed to freeze as Demetri cut Lil's ranting off by grabbing her. Hard. Making her squeal in discomfort. His processor nearly fritzed upon seeing that mech roughly handling what he saw as his. But it was what the fragger said next that really slagged him off.

Optics flashing an angry blue Demetri leaned down into Lil's face while she scowled and thrashed against his servo. "I will not let any other mech have you. YOU ARE MINE!"

Both Lil and Demetri turned towards them when Sunny let loose an angry roar of outrage. A roar that was echoed by his own as their Gladiatorial programming kicked on completely. All he could see was red. All he could process was the need to tear the mech in front of him apart. All he cared about was doing that and retrieving what was his.

"Sides, Sunny, you promised! Demetri put me down!" Lil struggled against the servo restraining her again.

A rush of gold suddenly shot passed him, hurdling at the stunned black mech and slamming into him in a ferocious tackle. His optics immediately honed in on HIS AND HIS TWIN'S FEMME as she was thrown through the air after the fragger released her to throw Sunny at the wall. His frame shot forward completely on instinct servos held out to catch her before she hit the ground. Twisting into a roll he cradled her against his chassis and came up out of his maneuver on his haunches.

"Sunny stop! Sides make him stop!" his little femme shouted in a panicked tone.

In response he only clutched her tighter to him as his systems switched solely to mate guarding. The other mech would not come any closer to her! His blades engaged, sliding out from his wrists he brought them up in front of himself defensively.

The two battling mechs roared angrily at one another as their own blades slid from their forearms. His brothers long golden claymores popped out of subspace before being spun out defensively in front of his frame. The other mech had two scythe like blades that popped out from his wrists and extended roughly the same length as his own did.

They started circling each other looking for any sort of opening while he analyzed and sent back information to his brother to help him pick a good opening. His audios suddenly picked up on the sound of pedes pounding down the corridor behind him. Spinning around he crouched down defensively and opened his hold.

"NO! I'm not going in there!"

Growling he shoved his cargo in anyways and slammed the plates shut after her. He heard blades clinging together behind him at the same time that a green mech came screeching around the corner, closely followed by a larger black mech, and another large black and white mech. A brief sense of familiarity flashed through his muddled processor but his programming chased it away. Crouching down even further he growled out a loud warning hiss. _"Stay. Away. From. MY! FEMME!"_ he gritted out in a series of angry clicks and whirs.

The green mech held his servos up defensively while avoiding optic contact with him. "Sideswipe drop your battle protocols and take control of your processor."

A primal sense of vicious pride coursed through him at the blatant refusal of every mech to meet his optics. None were foolish enough to challenge him over what was his! And the squirming femme in his hold was his! NOBOT ELSE'S! ONLY HIS AND SUNNY'S! NOT THAT WORTHLESS BLACK MECH'S!

The other mechs froze before exchanging looks of uncertainty and cautiousness.

His attention was quickly drawn to his hold when a strange sensation started coursing through his spark. It confused him, his battle programming could not tell what it was. Something was touching his spark both physically and in some other way. Small sparks of calming energy started worming their way into him making his protective programming balk immediately since he could still hear the sounds of fighting going on behind him.

His processor tried to pinpoint what it was so that he could put a stop to it, but it never once occurred to him that he should take his cargo out from his hold. No that would directly oppose what his programming was telling him to do.

The sensations only grew stronger as his raging spark pushed back against it. It only reacted more insistently pushing back feelings of comforting calm, and affection. His programming faltered just enough that the rational part of his processor was able to reclaim control again.

He forced his battle protocols to deactivate with a fair bit of effort. It was like coming out of being high on CN, or overcharged on high grade. It left him feeling light in the helm and jittery.

Shaking it off he opened his chest plating and retrieved Lil from his hold. His optics scanned over her for any injuries that Demetri's rough treatment could have caused. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! But Demetri isn't!"

Oh right. Sunny was tearing Demetri's aft open wasn't he? He turned around at the same moment that Demetri was roughly pinned to the rec room floor by an enraged Sunny. Both of them were sporting severed wires and scratches, but Demetri was far worse off for the wear. Dents littered his frame from either Sunny's fist, or from the handle of his swords. Several important looking Energon lines were laying hanging in several places on his neck. And now he had a blade pinned at his throat.

He made quick use of the sparkbond to send waves of peace to his twin's raging processor and spark. Sunny's glowing white optics flickered back to their normal deep blue for a split astrosecond before he growled and they flipped back. His twin pressed his blade farther into Demetri's neck.

Cursing he handed Lil over to Ratchet so that he could make his way over to Sunny's side and yank him off. Grabbing his twin around the shoulders he jerked him back and tossed him clear across the room. **'Enough Sunny! We already broke one of that stupid glitch's conditions just by fighting with him!'**

Sunny stood up snarling.** 'Kill him! He touched her! KILL HIM!'**

"Sunny stop it right now or I swear I'll kick your aft!"

A dizzying rush of need suddenly shot through him, not his but from his other half.

Sunny's helm snapped in the direction that the voice had come from as his processor managed to kick his gladiatorial programming in the aft. His optics flashed back to their normal blue. "Babe?" he asked in confusion. Images of what had happened to set him off flashed through the bond, through both of their processors. Jolting suddenly Sunny subspaced his swords and rushed over to Ratchet's side. He snatched Lil from the CMO's clutches and turned her over in his servos. "Did he hurt you?! He made you squeal!"

A collective growl was issued from every mech in the room save for the groaning mass of wires and plating laying prostate on the floor behind him. He left the fragger behind on the dirty floor where he deserved to be and made his way to Sunny's side. "Are you okay sweetspark? Did he hurt you?"

Lil looked up at them and shook her helm no. "No. I'm fine."

"Now what are we supposed to do with him?" Ironhide pointed to the downed mech with a sneer.

Prowl the ever logical mech stepped forward and pinned both he and his twin with 'the look.' "What exactly happened here?"

"He grabbed Lil and hurt her that's what happened!" Sunny snarled angrily.

"And our gladiatorial programming kind of kicked on and...Sunny attacked him," he added in an equally heated tone.

"That's not all of it," Lil stated quietly. She turned to look back at Prowl despite their warning growls. "We were discussing our past and what it would mean while the others are staying on base. Things got a little heated and tempers flared obviously. Demetri did grab me, but I should be equally to blame for not being able to control my temper."

"OH PIT NO!"

Everybot looked at him for his outburst. Now he was seething all over again! "You did not just say that you are to blame for him putting his servos on you! No mech has the right to put his servos on a femme like that! He could have really hurt you!" he spat the words like they were acidic.

"I agree with Sides babe. A mech that size could easily crush you by not being careful. He knows that, as does every other bot on base. He only put his servos on you because you told him something that he didn't want to hear." Sunny tossed a glare over his shoulder at the other mech who only glared back. "Piece of slag."

Lil slumped despondently. "Look in order for this to work you have to stop fighting with him." Her optics drifted up to land on both of them almost tiredly. "Estelle is probably going to have a fit about this as it is! So can we please get him treated for those injuries before he offlines from them?" At that bit she gave her opiluk a pointed look to which he just scowled at.

"I commed First Aid," Ratchet ground out in a steely tone. To anybot listening it was obvious that the CMO would not place Demetri on his favorite list anytime soon. But who would when the mech hurt their femling?

Lil flopped back down onto Sunny's servo with a groan. "Now I have to explain this to Estelle!" she whined while dragging her servos down her face tiredly. "You can't even behave for a week! Not one week!" She threw her arms in the air in exasperation as she ranted like all of them weren't even there. "Guess who has to deal with your brief moment of stupidity?! ME! ARGH! Maybe Estelle will be more...lax about it if we spar first... Yeah that sounds like a good idea. Wear her out then tell her so that she can't go on a homicidal rampage."

Sunny snorted. "Babe you worry too much. Technically we didn't break any rules. The rules were that we had to stay away from him and not fight with him. However nobot ever said anything about defending you from him! So the glitch can't really get mad at us for protecting you when he was hurting you."

"And if she wants to see proof we can download a vid file of it for her to watch," he added helpfully. "And if that doesn't work I would suggest that she check her sparkbond thoroughly."

Lil glared at him halfsparkedly. "Sides...do not test me."

"Shutting," he grinned mischievously at her.

First Aid came into the room at that moment and immediately headed to the down Fragger's side. Sunny took one look at the two of them and snorted. "I guess we can go now."

All of them left the rec room and went their separate ways. Honestly he was surprised that Prowl didn't throw them in the brig for fighting when it was against the rules. His only guess as to why that was, was that the SIC was seething about the fact that Demetri had put his servos on Lil in the first place. If that was the case Demetri had better watch out cause Prowl was the bane of every mech's existence.

* * *

><p>After his and Sunny's little stunt in the rec room Lil had wanted to go and find Estelle to tell her what happened...after a nice long spar. They had found the femme in one of the training rooms with Arcee and the blonde femme Miata.<p>

"Hey Stelle you wanna have a go?" Lil grinned before hopping off of Sunny's shoulder. On the way they had stopped at her quarters so that she could change into a pair of knee length silver basketball shorts, and a black long sleeved shirt.

Estelle who was dressed similarly in a pair of black skin tight shorts, and a tight gray t-shirt nodded once actually looking somewhat excited about it. "I would not mind that at all! The others just can't really keep up with me like you can!"

"Sweet! First one that admits defeat loses?" Lil suggested while stretching from the spot that she had claimed on the other side of the mat.

Estelle snorted. "Like that will ever happen on either of our parts. Might as well make it till to the last one standing. If one of us is still standing."

"Yeah you're probably right. Ok to the last one standing!" their femme agreed.

Both he and Sunny sat down a fair distance away from the sparing mats to watch as did Arcee and Miata. Their positioning was him, Sunny, Arcee, then Miata at the opposite end from him.

His optics were riveted on the two femmes on the mat as they fell into crouches. He knew that Lil was scary fast, he wondered if Estelle was too?

"Ready...? START!" Lil shouted before tensing and disappearing from sight. Literally.

Estelle vanished as well at the same exact moment.

His scanners wildly scanned the entire room for a spark signature for either of them, or some sort of sound to tell him where they were. His sensors pinged in on their locations directly in front of them as two almost incomprehensible blurs shot into one another at the same exact moment. A loud bang was heard as they met fist for fist dead center in the middle of the mats.

They separated quickly, sliding back and flying into a series of rapid punches and kicks. For a human all that would be distinguishable was a flurry of blurs that's how fast they were moving. Lil suddenly dropped low and swung her leg out catching Estelle in the ankle and sending her sprawling helm over pede.

Estelle flipped back around by twisting her upper half down so close to her lower half that it looked painful, using her servos she threw herself back over onto her feet and rushed Lil head on. They met each other helm on throwing punches and kicks even faster than before.

Estelle lunged up suddenly and dropped her leg down over Lil's helm. At the last astrosecond Lil twisted away with a smirk on her face and spun around to get behind the other femme.

They both vanished again suddenly leaving him in awe of just how fast they really were. His audio receptors picked up on the rapid thrumming of their sparks as they hummed loudly in exertion. It was the only way that he could accurately track them as they were moving too fast for his sensors to lock on.

Two flashes, one black and gray, and another red and black slammed back into each other near the other side of the mats. The two femmes started grappling each other around the shoulders before Estelle spun to kick Lil's pedes out from under her. Fast than he thought possible Lil spun up flipping over Estelle's helm and landed behind her kicking out at her exposed back. Estelle barely managed to spin out of the way in time to avoid taking any damage.

Lil sprung up and the two of them started exchanging punches again. Estelle couldn't hit Lil, but Lil managed to land some good blows to Estelle's mid-section and face. They separated and circled each other.

"This is actually really entertaining."

"Hey Ironhide. Coming to sit down and watch?" he teased the weapons specialist without ever turning away from the rapidly disappearing femmes on the mats.

Ironhide plopped down next to him. "I'm not the only one."

Jazz suddenly popped up over Ironhide's shoulder wearing a wide grin. "Me 'n Prowler came ta see too! Ah didn' thin' our femme could ever remin' me of you two!" Jazz plopped down more gracefully than Ironhide did. Prowl just stood behind his sparkmate watching the match with calculating optics.

"Yeah Prowler work that big ole battle computer," he joked.

Prowl tensed at the nickname and turned icy blue optics onto him. "You were almost thrown in the brig once today already Sideswipe. Do. Not. Test. Me."

Grinning he shrugged and turned back to the match. Just in time to see Estelle actually land a hit to Lil's face sending her reeling back. Ouch that looked like it hurt.

"WHOO YOU ACTUALLY HIT ME!" Lil suddenly cheered while fist pumping. "AWWW YEAH! I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER THE LAST TIME YOU ACTUALLY CAUGHT ME LIKE THAT!"

Estelle grinned in response. "Yes well it has been a while since we last saw each other. Three centuries is a long time to try and figure out how to combat that precognitive skill of yours." Falling into a low crouch Estelle circled around her. "All that I need to do is alter my attack at the last possible second at a speed that you cannot match. Since you will already have altered your stance based on my previous movements I just need to have a faster reaction time than you."

She suddenly sprung at Lil again then feinted left at the last possible astrosecond swinging her leg around in a roundhouse kick at her helm. There was a sudden burst of electromagnetic energy making Estelle grimace as her attack slid just a hair over the top of Lil's helm.

"But you forgot that I have other skills too Stelly! I can tweak the electromagnetic impulses in your body to tweak the course of your attacks. You forgot about that didn't you?" Lil teased earning herself a scowl from Estelle.

They sat there as the two threw themselves at the other again. Clashing over and over again in a blinding whirl of blurred bodies and vicious blows of their servos. Breems passed while he watched the spar completely fascinated with the way that they moved and how fast. Their size gave them an agility and maneuverability that a large mech could not hope to match.

Finally after an entire six breems of nonstop movement and fighting the spar came screeching to an end when Lil kicked Estelle's pedes out from under her again, grabbed her around the shoulders, and slammed her into the mats below servo poised at her face in the killing blow. "I WIN! YOU JUST CAN'T TOUCH THIS STELLY!"

"Stop calling me Stelly," Estelle grumbled while taking the servo that Lil offered. Once she was on her pedes she dusted herself off and scowled at Lil. "So what did you do that will piss me off?"

Lil stiffened and pouted. "What? Why would you even think that?"

Blue optics narrowed on their femme's pouting form. "Because ever since you were little and you got into trouble you would always come to me and ask me to spar with you so that I was too tired to get mad when you told me what you did. So my question is, what did you do?"

Sage green optics glanced over at them uncertainly. "Well I got into a fight with Demetri...it got heated...and he grabbed me...pretty hard and it kinda hurt... So...Sunny and him got into it. And yeah he's in the med bay right now."

"He did what?!"

Everybot winced and discreetly scooted back away from the now enraged femme.

"He put his servos on you?! I will kick his ass to the moon and back! No son of mine is going to harm women!"

Every set of optics in the room must have widened simultaneously when Estelle showed anger at Demetri and not at him or Sunny. Well maybe the other part of what Lil had said hadn't sunk in yet.

"So you're mad at Demetri but not at Sides and Sunny?" Lil asked in clear disbelief.

Estelle huffed. "I didn't say that I wasn't mad at your lovers over there. But I raised Demetri better than this Lily! I knew he was up to something when he dulled our bond down earlier!"

"So you're not going to try and kill my intended mates?"

"No. I don't like them Lily and you know this! But even I can place blame where it is due. If Demetri wants to harm an innocent woman then he deserves to get his ass kicked." Estelle turned and stomped out the door with a huff of anger. "I will have his ass for this!" Came drifting back over her shoulder when she turned the corner.

Silence was left in her wake... "Well I guess she's only a half aft glitch," Sunny suddenly snorted breaking the silence.

He snorted a laugh while everybot else just looked too shocked to react. Even Lil! Well at least Optimus didn't have to do damage control this time!

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! I really hate Demetri and he's my OC is that bad? Lol keep reviewing and reading!<p> 


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

So I realized that even though they hardly mention him Jolt is in the second movie. Good thing this is somewhat AU. I guess we'll have to make due with First Aid! Anyways Shitframe wants to know when the bonding will take place. So far I have been trying to put it off but I can put it in anytime now really. Depends on if I want to or not lol. Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Lime! Readers have been warned!

* * *

><p>After Demetri's little stunt Estelle had opened up a can of whoopaft all over him. Fragger couldn't leave the med bay for an additional day or so just from the dents to his frame that she had inflicted. Afterwards she had come to her and told her that she had ordered Demetri to stay away from her and her twins.<p>

Which was all good because the twins were still on edge about the stupid mech's stunt four days ago. They hardly even left her side for an astrosecond if they could help it. And if one of them had to go the other would stay behind with her unless her dad came to collect her.

That was another thing that was weird. Not really but kind of. Her dad was so attentive to her every need be it making sure she was fed, or that she was getting proper recharge, or whether she was wearing proper clothing for the weather. Honestly she loved it, but she could also see why human teenagers constantly complained about their parents being too overbearing. Cause her dad was overbearing just saying.

As exasperating as it could sometimes it still offered her comfort that she desperately needed. It was nice to wake up from one of her nightmares and having somebot in her spark to dull the fear and pain in a much more effective way than what Sides and Sunny had done. After all they could not see what it was that was really causing her pain and fear. All they knew was that she was afraid and in pain.

Sessions with Smokescreen had been going better as well. It had been roughly seven months since she started seeing him and despite her earlier aversion to it, she now took full advantage of her time to vent. She no longer fought it when she had to go. She could do without being forced to relive the memories sure, but that was all a part of actually healing and getting better. Didn't mean that she looked forward to the pain but...

Things on base had also been shaken up with the presence of the other hybrids as well. Jezz and Annie had taken up an immediate partnership with Sides, and together the three of them would wreak havoc on base all day long with their pranks. Sunny of course, was not so pleased that there were now two additional pranksters egging Sides on even more, since Sides dragged him into his pranks constantly. Ergo Sunny, Sides, Annie, and Jezz were spending a good amount of time in the brig because Prowl had finally lost his cool and started throwing the two women down there after they pranked him and made him glitch.

There was only one thing that was really bothering her lately. Something that she kept hidden even from her dad for more reasons than one.

Intimacy. She found herself wanting to bond to the twins more and more every single day. It was like her spark was growing impatient and pulling more in their direction every time they came around her. Because of this her body had been doing strange things like tingling when they were around. Sometimes she felt this burning heat traveling through her entire body centering around her abdomen and between her legs. Well she knew what it was but she had never felt it when she wasn't being forced to feel it.

It was getting increasingly hard to deal with as the days went on. One part of her was warring with another part. One wanted to throw caution to the wind and interface just to alleviate the damn feeling for good. And the other part of her constantly balked back from the thought and sent fear racing through her. She didn't know what to do about it anymore. She was exasperated. Tired.

Her body wouldn't accept the touch of a mech. No it always froze and refused to move or cooperate with her. That had been one of the main reasons that things had not been able to progress with Demetri as he had wanted. Because he had wanted her too much that he couldn't move at a pace that she felt comfortable with.

Several times she had been at that point with him, where she was laying bare on their berth about to join with him even when her spark was terrified. Each time she had not been able to go through with it. She kept chickening out and pulling back. It had only served to strain their relationship. Mechs that age needed intimacy. Their processors were dominated by the need to interface or fight. One or the other and she hadn't been able to give him what he had needed from her.

So she was still scared about what to do now. Sides and Sunny were older. They didn't ever pressure her for anything. Now she found that her body was just reacting to them regardless of what she did. Their close proximity had started to almost drive her mad because of her need to relieve the burning ache.

The real question now was...what to do about it? She would go to Estelle if she thought that the older woman wouldn't immediately shoot the idea down due to her own dislike of bots... Miata was out of the question because they had barely spoken since the others had arrived on base. Jezz and Annie...neither of them had had lovers as far as she could remember. She didn't want to tell Smokes because she was sure that it would lead to some kind of bet. So that left her with Arcee maybe?

Her eyes widened as she leapt up off of her bed. Yes! Arcee would know and she wouldn't judge! Bounding over to her ladder she slid all the way down to the floor before dashing out the door to her and her dad's berth room.

The living space passed by in a blur by how fast she was running, she really needed to have Jacky make her some sort of comm device so that she could stop doing this. She opened the door to their living quarters and dashed out into the hallway towards where she could sense Arcee's spark signature. The purple femme was with Jazz in the training room.

She made a mad dash for it passed Ironhide, the STILL dented dumb twins, and even passed Optimus. Waving at all three of them as she passed by she continued her trek to the training room. Arcee would know what to do! At the very least she would have sound advice for her!

In a few kliks she skidded into the training room. Literally skidded making a loud screeching noise as the rubber of her soles burned across the floor. She ignored it and dashed over to Arcee and Jazz who were both looking at her in surprise. "Arcee can I talk to you in private please?"

Arcee looked surprised but nodded and waved to Jazz nonetheless. "Of course. Where would you like to go to talk?"

"Umm your room?"

Nodding once Arcee turned and led her from the room without another word. "Am I to assume that the reason that you sought me out is because of the twins?"

Blushing she nodded once before remembering that Arcee wasn't looking at her and couldn't see it. "Yeah."

Arcee didn't say anything else after that until they arrived at her room and stepped inside. The door was promptly locked so that nobot could interrupt them.

Arcee gestured for her to sit down on her berth which was thankfully small enough that she could actually get onto it. As soon as she was seated comfortably the purple femme came over and sat down next to her. "So what exactly did you need advice for?"

The blush on her face grew even hotter until it was practically glowing blue. "Well I-I um, I wanted to know how I should...go about becoming more intimate with the twins?" She swore that she was going to die of sheer embarrassment by spontaneously combusting right here and now! This was so much harder to talk about than she had hoped it would be.

Arcee looked surprised before a flash of understanding passed through her optics. "I see. Your past would make the subject of interfacing and intimacy quite a scary topic wouldn't it?" Shifting nervously on the berth she nodded once in response. There was a thoughtful humming sound from Arcee before she started speaking again. "Well how about we start simple with this conversation? What are you comfortable with so far?"

Starting in surprise she turned back to Arcee and pursed her lips thoughtfully as she stared into Arcee's beautiful blue optics. "Well we kiss and make out sometimes and I'm usually okay with that. Umm but whenever they do something as small as touching my inner thigh I freeze up."

"And how do they react when you pull back?" There was an intensity to the way that Arcee asked that question that made her shudder.

Shifting nervously again her fingers traveled down to her shorts and fingered at the hem as a way of channeling her stress. "They're always really cool about it. Both of them said that they'll wait as long as I need. In fact the last time I froze up I never even said anything before Sunny was off of me and he even pulled Sides off because Sides hadn't realized that I had locked up." Thinking about it made her feel grateful. With Demetri he had always been trying to push her limits in his quest to get into her pants. At least her soon-to-be mates were nothing like that.

"At least you know that they will respect your limits and not push their needs on you. That makes this much easier for you to handle." Arcee smiled softly and turned to face her completely. "My suggestion is for you to start initiating more intimacy. It doesn't have to be anything big like actual facing; it can be something as small as a kiss. From there work on pushing your limits a little bit more AT YOUR PACE!"

"So...work a little bit further each time?" she guessed.

Arcee nodded. "Right. Work up from a kiss to maybe some light petting or whatever you are comfortable with. And keep working up from there Lilah. This is your body and you know your limits better than anybot else does. Do not do anything that is going to scar you even more. Keep it slow and who knows? You might even surprise yourself."

She doubted that she would but... "Thanks Arcee. I've been beating myself up over this for days now!"

Arcee waved her off. "It's nothing Lilah and we're friends aren't we? Friends can talk to each other about things like this right?"

She smiled softly feeling truly grateful for having a friend like Arcee. "Right. That extends both ways too you know? You can come and talk to me when you need it."

"I know. Now why don't you go and find those twins of yours?" Arcee gave her a mischievous look and waggled an optic ridge at her.

Spluttering she managed to stammer out a weak protest. "Arcee..." Of course that only made the marksman laugh even harder at her. Oh the embarrassment! The sheer unadulterated embarrassment! At least she had gained some sound advice for all of her embarrassment.

* * *

><p>Later that night she was laying on her old bed in her old room. Her dad had to go on a mission with Optimus, Ironhide, and Jazz so she had been instructed to stay near the twins. So she had packed a bag with several pairs of pajamas, outfits, undergarments, bathroom necessities, and some other things.<p>

Her mind was still reeling over the conversation that she had with Arcee earlier. She was going to try it out and see where it led her! It couldn't hurt right? And luckily for her Sunny was locked in his room working on a painting leaving her sitting alone with Sides in her room.

It wasn't that she didn't want Sunny because she did. She just figured that it would be easier to move into this with one of them rather than both at the same time. And even better for her yet was the fact that Sides had already activated his holoform and was cuddling her. All she had to do was work up the courage to do something!

_'Start small and work your way up from there.'_ Arcee's voice echoed around in her mind softly. Start small... Her back was facing Sides so she slowly turned over onto her other side so that she was facing him. Her eyes met his deep blue optics as she scooted closer and snuggled into him. Start slow...work your way up. That was what she had to keep telling herself. Repeating it like a mantra really.

Slowly she tilted her head back from where she had tucked it into the crook of the holoform's neck and pressed her lips feather soft against his throat. She felt the holoform stiffen slightly as a pleasant rumble emitted from his chest.

So far so good... She trailed her lips up from his throat to his chin which he so graciously tilted down for her. For a moment she just peppered his face with soft kisses over his cheeks, passed his lips but never touching them, and over the high cheek bones near his shining blue optics. And he let her do all of this without complaint, without pressing her to move fast or do more.

When she felt that she was comfortable enough she trailed her lips down and hovered over his own for a brief moment. In truth kissing and making out didn't frighten her at all. It was what came after...a territory that she was willingly exploring for the first time. That thought made her feel strangely bold about what she was doing. She was doing it because SHE wanted to! Not because somebot else wanted her to.

Suddenly feeling empowered she finally let the distance fall away and pressed her lips against his. He responded in kind pressing his lips back just as softly. Smiling she moved her lips languidly over his while trying to ignore the fire that was slowly starting to seep into her body.

Sides moved suddenly rolling over while still holding onto her until he was situated on his back and she was sprawled over him. He briefly separated from her and grinned at her questioning look. "This is your show sweetspark you get to control how far we go. I'll be your submissive."

She blushed heavily making him laugh at her embarrassment. But she didn't comment on it since she was on a mission to safely press the limits of her body. Leaning down she kissed him again, harder this time. She snaked her tongue into his mouth pressing it against his like she had done many times before. A deep pleased rumble from him shook her body sending tingles scattering through her insides.

She sighed softly into the kiss and shifted her hips to alleviate the growing ache there. Her legs were straddling his hips causing her core to slid over a rather prominent bulge there. Her body froze both in fear and pleasure from the fiery jolt of pleasure that came from rubbing her apex over it.

She slammed her eyes shut and tried to breathe through her fear. This is where she froze every time! Whenever one of them even came close to touching her core! If she ever wanted to get passed this she had to push herself!

So instead of hastily vacating his lap like she normally would have she forced herself to stay there.

Sides must have sensed her internal struggle because he pulled back from the kiss and took her face into his servos. Meeting her eyes squarely with his own warm optics he offered her a warm smile. "We can stop if you want. Remember what I said? You are in control of this little show sweets. Stop if you want okay? I won't be mad."

His words and the sincerity with which he spoke them made her falter in her fear. Her eyes started blurring as tears built up in them. Her mind conjured up every instance where she had been in situations like this. Being forced over and over again while in captivity. Being pushed over and over again when she wasn't ready with Demetri. Whenever she had hit this point with him he would get angry at her for working him up and not satisfying him. Yes he would stop but he was never so nice about it.

But here Sides was telling her that she did not have to do anything just because he wanted her to. And she knew that he wanted her to because she could see it in his optics. They were heated and almost liquid like in their intensity. His holoform's cheeks were flushed and his chest was rising and falling faster than was normal. Yes he definitely wanted her, but he was willing to stop for her.

He was so much better than any male that she had ever met before she had come here. No to her both he and Sunny were the best mechs in the universe. And she wanted to stop being scared so that they could be hers forever.

She wanted to keep doing this. No she had to keep doing this. And when she assessed herself after coming to that realization she found that she wasn't quite as afraid as she had been. Because he had told her that she didn't have to do anything. That meant that she COULD do something if SHE wanted to.

He was still lying there watching her never having moved an inch while she was having her internal debate. "Sweetspark?"

Using her sleeves she wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I'm okay Sides. And if you don't mind I want to keep going."

Surprise flashed through his optics for a brief moment before they darkened. He nodded once and laid back completely lax against her bed. "Like I said this is your show sweets. Only you get to decide how far we go."

Nodding once her eyes roved over his holoform body over his strong washboard abs, his strong broad shoulders, down his tones arms, before finally coming to a rest on his large servos. Hesitantly she took one and brought it to the curve of her right breast.

It was almost comical how much his optics widened by her bold move. Even so he took over and started kneading the soft flesh after some prompting from her.

Pleasant jolts of pleasure shot down straight into her apex making her mewl softly. Her body jerked making her center slide over Sides bulge again sending more jolts of the same intense pleasure through her. She bit her lip and hesitantly did it again, breath leaving her in a breathy whimper when an even more intense jolt shot through her.

A soft grunt left her intended mate's lips.

Taking his other servo she placed it on her other breast before dropping her hands to his chest to steady herself. All fear had long since fled her mind and spark as the stronger and more prevalent part of her, in regards to the mech beneath her came forward.

She started grinding against him repeatedly. All the worked up tension from the last few days getting the better of her. All she could focus on was seeking out that next jolt of pleasure, and how good having his servos on her chest felt. Moaning softly she sped up the pace of her hips making the mech beneath her shiver and groan.

She felt the coil that had become a seemingly permanent part of her life in recent days tighten up again painfully. Never had she ever felt something like it in her entire life up until this point. All she knew was that she was grinding her hips faster to try and make it go away when it only seemed to make it hurt more.

She sped up more until her headboard started lightly hitting the wall. Her fingers dug into his chest making him clench his teeth and hiss. It hurt! Her lower abdomen hurt so fragging bad but it felt so good at the same time. Nothing was alleviating that pain! It just kept building higher and higher!

"Sides it hurts..." She whimpered pitifully. Her hips never faltered from their now rapid grinding.

Sides sat up slowly servos still roughly kneading her chest. Even in this position he was still taller than her. "What do you want me to do to make it feel better?" he murmured huskily.

Whimpering she gave a hard jerk of her hips and practically cried out. "I DON'T KNOW!" As much as she had been forced into interfacing she still wasn't all that knowledgeable on consensual interfacing or even any other sexual activities. It had always been straightforward with them spiking her while she felt disgust and revulsion. Never had it felt good to her. Nor had she ever overloaded er...orgasmed from it. So she really didn't know what she wanted him to do! She just wanted him to do something!

He hummed thoughtfully, "You trust me right?"

"Y-Yes I do," her voice cut off with a pained whimpering noise when she was unable to meet the overload that her body so desperately needed. The next thing she felt was her shirt being lifted up while he cooed to her about how beautiful she was and how much he loved her. He took the material right off and threw it somewhere that she didn't care to know at this moment. His servo moved to her shoulders and slipped her bra straps down, and finally he worked her cups down off of her breasts.

For a brief moment she found herself wondering what he was going to do through the haze of her mind, only to suddenly get the answer to her unspoken question when his glossa brushed against her areola. She cried out hips jerking hard in response when he enveloped her bud in his mouth. A shrill scream left her lips when his servo found her other bud and tweaked it.

The coil in her abdomen suddenly clenched so hard that her vision introverted. Her hips sped up even more as bright flashes broke out across her vision. He suddenly switched to her left breast but he didn't take her right breast like he had her left. She didn't have to wonder why for long because the next thing she knew a second mouth was attached to her free breast. She screamed and looked down meeting Sunny's optics as he lavished her breast with his own glossa.

Something about the sight was so fragging erotic it made the thin claws of the coil finally give way. Blinding pleasure suddenly rushed through her entire body making her mouth fall open in a shrill scream as all of the tension from the past few days suddenly fled in the face of the most intense feeling that she had ever felt besides pain. Her body seemed to lock and freeze save for her hips which started ramming against the bulge making Sides grunt around her breast. His frame suddenly stiffened and jerked in what she could only guess was surprise before he moaned loudly around her flesh. Something hot pooled beneath her apex wetting her sweat pants.

Both she and Sides slumped and fell to the side on the bed. She panted heavily and fixed her bra while he worked to slow his own breathing. "Umm did I just overload?"

Sides looked at her in surprised contentment. "Yeah. Are you implying that you've never overloaded before?"

She blushed and looked down at her comforter. "Yeah that's what I'm saying." A body came to rest behind her on the bed. Suddenly she felt bad because she could tell that Sides had overloaded from the bright blue fluid on his holoform's pants, but Sunny had gotten nothing out of this. Turning over onto her other side and snuggled into him while Sides moved to spoon against her back. Her hand snaked down between them to rest at the top of his loose jeans. She hesitated before slipping it inside of his holoform's boxers to grip his...holy slag! His rod was fragging huge! Come to think of it so was Sides rod!

Sunny chuckled at what must be her gaping blushing face. "Something wrong?"

In her embarrassment she said what was probably the dumbest thing that she could say. "How is that even supposed to fit inside me?! It's fragging huge! And so is Sides !" she snapped her mouth shut and groaned while smacking herself in the forehead with her free hand.

The worst part of this whole mess was that she could literally feel their egos being inflated! She really had to learn to watch what she said. Especially when she had her hand wrapped around a giant alien robot in a human disguise's dick!

The worst part yet was that she had absolutely no idea what to do not that she had it in her hand! Sunny seemed to sense her problem though because he snaked his servo into his pants and wrapped it around hers showing her how to move. She blushed and ducked her head into his shoulder as she started stroking him like he had showed her.

His hot breath ghosted over her ear lobe. "What's wrong babe? Are you suddenly deciding to play shy after you rubbed your port all over Sides interface rod?" he breathed as his glossa flicked out over her ear lobe before gently pulling it into his mouth to suck on.

Squealing she gave a rough jerk of her hand making him groan around her ear lobe. She needed to end this quick or he was going to undo all the stress relief that Sides had just given her. Hitching a leg over his hip she rolled him onto his back thankfully getting him to stop torturing her ear. "No bad Sunny! Do you know how hard the last few days have been for me?"

Giving another rough jerk of her hand his hips arched as he groaned loudly. "No. Tell me."

Scowling she undid his pants and pulled him through his boxers so that she could take him in both hands and stroke him. "Very hard, especially since I'm still not ready for interfacing! Every time I was around one of you I had the urge to just attack you! Sides so kindly helped me to get rid of all of that built up need and you mister are not going to tease me until I'm even worse off than when I started!"

In response Sunny just grinned at her. "Who said that I would leave you hanging?"

Blushing she stammered out something unintelligent sounding. She continued stroking him even through her embarrassment, gradually finding out the way he liked to be worked the most. If she loosened her grip going down and tightened it coming back up before squeezing under the head he groaned harder...

Grinning she started doing that on every pass. The only thing that was weird about this whole situation was that Sides was watching her stroke his brother. Strangely enough she thought that it was pretty hot the way his optics were watching her hands so intently. She vaguely wondered what Arcee would say if she could see and hear what she was thinking right now when she had been so scared earlier. She was right though...her body had surprised her.

She continued stroking him hard, what she lacked in experience she made sure to make up for in vigor. After what seemed like forever he suddenly tensed and groaned loudly. Something hot and wet hit her chest and stomach making her look down at the bright transfluid now coating her. She frowned at it for a moment before meeting Sunny's optics and grinning at him. "Better?"

"Much," Sunny smirked back at her.

"Though I have to wonder what brought this all on?" Sides purred in her ear.

Squeaking she fell over Sunny and nearly tumbled off the bed before she managed to catch herself. "Sides!"

The mech in question helped her back onto the bed where he handed her the shirt he had torn off of her earlier. Sunny frowned at that and snatched it from her. "Why does he get to make you overload and I don't?" he pouted.

"What is this like a competition to you two?" she scowled at him as Sides previous question had her turning back to him. "And to answer your question I wanted to see if I could handle trying new things. Primarily because I want to be able to bond soon and I need to be able to handle interfacing to do that. So I decided that I was going to try being more intimate...and it wasn't as scary as it used to be." That was probably because she had been in control the whole time though. She figured that her body would probably lock up the first time that she allowed one of them to be on top of her, or in control of the situation at all.

Both of them smiled at her as Sides hugged her tightly to him. "Well I am happy as slag that you made the effort sweetspark. And for what it's worth that was the best overload I have ever had without actual interfacing."

She blushed and smacked his cheek playfully. "Pervert."

In response he only grinned and kissed her vigorously.

Then Sunny had to go and ruin the whole moment that they were having. "Now we just have to make sure that Hatchet doesn't find out about any of this."

Both of them separated and looked at Sunny who's pants were still undone. "Really Sunny? That s all that you can think about? And can you please put your pants back on before I start trying to lic-!" Her jaw snapped shut with an audible click. What the pit was wrong with her today?!

Both of them just laughed while Sides teased her. "Look at who's a little face maniac in the making!"

"Shut up!" She dove into her bed and groaned in embarrassment for the thousandth time that day.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Sideswipe had found a hobby in the few days following that amazing berthroom encounter with his femme. That hobby was teasing her playfully about every possible aspect of it. Now he wasn't doing it to make her feel like slag or anything, he was doing it to make her blush in what he knew was desire.

He was a sneaky mech. And one taste of her frame would never ever be enough for him to satisfy his need for her. But he wouldn't force her to come to him. Oh no he could subtly tease her until she was so worked up that she needed to pin him to her berth again.

Grinning at the thoughts plaguing his processor and at the sense of amusement and exasperation that his twin sent him over their sparkbond, he glided down the hall to the med bay to retrieve Lil from her shift with Ratchet. At least he could do so safely since Lil had somehow prevented Ratchet from finding out about their activities.

At least he thought that she had since Ratchet hadn't hunted down Sunny or him to bludgeon them to death yet. He paused just outside the med bay doors and shifted nervously for an astrosecond before he pushed the button to open the door.

He peeked inside warily before gliding inside, wheels poised to suddenly peel out in reverse if wrenches started flying. Surprisingly none came. In fact Ratchet was bent over at his desk muttering something and hadn't even seemed to notice him yet.

Lil was on a berth tending to dented Skids. She looked up when he came in however and smiled happily.

He held up his digit in front of his mouth components in a gesture for her to be quiet. Then he pointed at Skids to ask if she was done repairing him.

Lil nodded once and stood up to make her way to the end of the berth.

Grabbing her he turned to make a hasty escape only to hear a familiar sound of a wrench flying through the air. Seering pain lit up the back of his helm as his helm was dented inward from the force with which the wrench hit him. "OW! THE FRAG WAS THAT FOR?!" he yelped.

"For trying to take my sparkling without my knowledge!" Ratchet snarled as his angry pede steps echoed throughout the room.

"She's my intended mate! I should be allowed to take her when I want to!" he protested with a whine. Prodding at the back of his helm his servo came back covered in fresh Energon. Frag Ratchet had thrown that wrench hard!

The green CMO came up beside him and leered at him intensely. "Take her how?" he muttered in a low and menacing tone.

Lil squeaked and he could feel the blush that heated her skin. "DAD! WE'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING LIKE THAT!"

Slag! Obviously Lil needed to be taught how to block her bond better because he was not certain that Ratchet knew about their little escapade. And now his helm was dented like a motherslagger and it hurt like a motherfragger! He couldn't blame her for his current predicament though...she had never had a lasting bond where she had been around other beings in a manner like the way that they were together. So she probably didn't know how to completely cut Ratchet out. Still...his helm hurt.

Ratchet ignored her completely and leaned down into his face making him lean back away from the utterly terrifying look he was on the receiving end of. "If she comes back to me scared or damaged in any way for any reason I will hunt you down and rewire you into a portable toilet for Ironhide to piss into. Do you understand?"

Gulping he nodded once hastily, "Got it!"

Ratchet gave him one last warning look before he drew back and patted Lil's head affectionately. "Be safe sweetling. I will retrieve you after I am finished with my work for the day."

"K see you later dad," Lil smiled at him and waved once as he carted her from the room. As soon as they were out she whirled on him and started spewing apologies. "Oh Sides I am so sorry about that! I was thinking about the other night because of the way you were teasing me this morning and I guess that I forgot to dampen down the bond! Oh that looks like it hurts! Do you want me to take a look at it?"

She looked like she might keep spewing more apologies so he silenced her by placing his digit over her mouth. "It's fine sweetspark. You aren't completely used to the bond yet so I should have expected something like this. And my teasing earlier probably didn't help at all." His new hobby had just turned into the reason for what would probably be a world of pain. Maybe he should stick to his old hobbies like pranking? Yeah pranking was relatively safe as long as he didn't get caught.

**'I'm back from patrol Sides. Coming your way now. Is Red with you?'**

**'Yeah she's with me. Just had a run in with Ratchet and his wrench. I think we need to help teach sweetspark how to dull the bond down more effectively because that really hurt.'**

Sunny snorted but said nothing in response. His gold form came waltzing around the corner leading to the main hangar not even half an astrosecond later. "Ratchet found out about the other night then?" he asked aloud.

Lil groaned in response and ducked her head in embarrassment. "Yes... Sides was teasing me earlier and I started thinking about...THAT, and I forgot to dull the bond down so dad heard and... Well I didn't know that he heard because there was no reaction or anything from him. But I guess he did because poor Sides has a nasty dent on the back of his helm now."

"Let me see." His twin jerked him forward so that he could look at the damage. A short laugh shook Sunny's frame before he was roughly shoved back. "Nice dent afthead!"

Pouting he rubbed at the dent. "Not cool Sunny."

A snort was all he received in response. They started back down the hall in the opposite direction from where Sunny had appeared. They hadn't even taken three steps down the corridor before an alert appeared on his HUD. Sighing he opened the comm link.** 'What's up boss bot?'**

**'Sideswipe I need both you and Sunstreaker in the main hangar for a mission briefing right now. Leave Lilah with First Aid and come here as soon as you are able.'** Optimus ordered him before quickly cutting the link.

"We have to go find First Aid and leave Lil with him so that we can meet Optimus for a mission briefing in the hangar."

"Really? I just got back from patrol! What do I have to do to get some time with my femme?!" Sunny groaned.

"You can see me when you get back," Lil reassured him quietly. "I guess this also means that I have to stay behind and watch after Estelle and the others too?" she questioned exasperatedly.

"I guess so. Don't worry though sweetspark. I'm sure that Optimus will let you come on the next one." Now where the slag was First Aid?

"In the med bay. Dad's on his way to the main hangar."

So they veered back in the direction of the med bay to drop her off. The bay was completely empty save for First Aid's red and white form. He passed Lil over to the other mech quickly while Sunny glared at the medic in what could only be a threat should anything happen to her. "We'll see you when we get back sweetspark." He gently caressed her cheek with his digits before turning and making his way back out into the corridor.

After Sunny joined him the two of them quickly made their way to the hangar where Optimus, Ironhide, Jazz, Bluestreak, Ratchet, and even Prowl were waiting patiently for them. They fell into step behind beside Ratchet and waited while Optimus explained the reason for the sudden meeting.

"Con activity has been reported near San Francisco California."

He groaned internally...that was hours away!

"Our scans show that Starscream and Barricade are operating in that area along with Shockwave and several trines of drones. That is the reason that I called for such a large mission party. I want Ironhide and the twins to intercept Barricade and Starscream, while I go after Shockwave. The rest of you are to work on dispatching the drones. We need to find out the reason for their activity in this area and if there is any significance to their activity there."

Sunny scowled and nudged him making him look over at Ratchet who was seething. The CMO obviously wanted a piece of Shockwave, and for that matter so did both of them. Maybe they could take a few shots at him after they dispatched Starscream. "When are we leaving?" he asked after turning back to face Optimus.

"Right now."

Both he and Sunny shared a look. Would Lil be okay without one of them for a day? He hoped that she would be.

When everybot else shifted down to alt mode he followed in their tracks and did the same. But as he pulled out of the hangar he couldn't help but to worry that Lil would be lonely without them. He hoped that First Aid made sure that she was okay.

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

Aednat walked alongside her as she traveled down the corridor to Wheeljack's lab with First Aid escorting her. He was a pretty mellow and compassionate bot, always worrying and fussing over her. When he had told her that Wheeljack needed to see her she had been ready to just head on over to his lab alone. But First Aid had refused to let her walk across the base alone. It was kind of cute really.

Aednat seemed to like him too so that was a plus since she could be very moody with certain bots. She hadn't been able to spend as much time with her lately because of all the crap she had been doing so she had stopped to retrieve her before going to see Jacky. Maybe Jacky would be happy to see his creation too? Well not his real creation but yeah...

The three of them stopped outside of Jacky's lab. "Well First Aid I guess I will see you in a bit?"

First Aid smiled softly at her while nodding. "Yes. I will have Jacky comm me when you are finished so that I can come and retrieve you."

"Ok see you soon Aid," she waved at him once before she turned and made her way into ground zero. "Hey Jacky!"

Jacky turned to her upon her entering the room and grinned excitedly. "Oh Lilah! I just got done testing a new communication device for you to use!"

Stopping right next to his pede she felt him lift her up and sit her on his desk carefully. From this vantage point she could see what looked to be a small red Auto bot insignia with a small green button on it, a small red button, a small speaker, and several wires sticking out of the other side. She was utterly confused on what he was planning on doing with that.

"Hand me your bracelet please," Jacky instructed.

Staring at him with wide eyes she nodded once and slipped her right bracelet off before handing it to him. He took it and brought the small Auto bot symbol to the smooth golden band of her bracelet. Several small tools sprung from his digits that he used to make several small holes that he worked the wires into. They seemed to tighten and pull the insignia itself down onto the golden band at which point he took a small welder and welded it on completely.

As soon as he was finished with that he handed the bracelet over to her. "Try it out. Just push the green button and speak into the speaker. It only works for the public com link for anybots nearby but they can talk to you through the speaker. And you can talk to them of course."

He looked so excited that she felt herself becoming super excited as well. She brought the bracelet to her mouth and pushed the little green button. _"If Smokes can hear this please respond,"_ she giggled and waited on bated breath.

A second later there was a small static like noise before a deep voice responded back. _"Little sweets? How are you talking over the comm- oh Jacky," he suddenly deadpanned. " _I hope that whatever he has you using is safe."

Jacky gave an affronted gasp which she laughed at. Bringing her new toy back to her mouth she spoke into it while grinning. _"Yup he tested it."_

After a moment Smokes responded back again, _"Well that's good."_

Then Arcee's voice came over the comm link. _"And it should be useful for keeping tabs on you,"_ she joked.

She pouted._ "You guys are so mean. Well I need to go so that I can get back to First Aid. Lil out!"_ Turning back to Jacky she grinned and slid her bracelet back on. "Thanks Jacky!"

His helm fins flashed once as he nodded back. "You are very welcome Lilah. Now I would comm First Aid to tell him to come and get you but he must already know seeing as how he will have heard that."

"Yup very useful!" she was just so giddy that she couldn't help it!

Before she could jump off the desk Jacky stopped her. "Oh one more thing! The red button is how you turn the link off! Once you push the green button bots can hear everything that is going on around you until you push the red button. Do not forget to deactivate the link when you want privacy."

"Roger that Jacky!" She saluted him as she slipped down from the desk and landed on the floor next to Aednat. "See you later Jacky!" She waved to him before she and Aednat left the room.

First Aid was nowhere to be seen so she brought her new toy to her mouth and spoke into it. _"First Aid? Where are you?"_

There was a brief silence before his soft voice came back over the line. _"In the med bay. Skids and Mudflap got into another fight so I have to treat them. You can come here if you want or I can meet you somewhere afterward."_

After a moment of deliberation she decided to just go to the rec room. _"I'll be in the rec room when you're done okay?"_

_"Roger that."_

There was a surprising amount of chattering over the line from the bots on base. Not all of it was directed at her but she listened intently to most of it. Apparently Annie and Jezz were in the brig again and Smokescreen was tasked with looking after them. Estelle, Miata, and Demetri were with Arcee in the training rooms. And Limelight was apparently in her berthroom not that she really cared.

As she entered the rec room she hopped up onto a table and sat there dangling her legs over the edge. She missed Sides and Sunny...

She sat there lamenting over them for several breems when something not right pricked at her senses. Sitting up straighter she honed in on whatever it was...a cyberbird? Beside her Aednat perked up at the same time and growled warningly in the direction of the doorway. She placed a steadying hand on her scruff bar and lifted her bracelet to her mouth. _"Smokes?"_

_"Yeah?"_

At that moment a blur of silver shot around the corner far above her head. _"Smokes! There's a cyberbird in the rec room!"_ Ducking down she rolled off of the table tugging Aednat along by her scruffbar when it was obvious that her companion wanted to tear the creature apart.

_"A cyberbird? Hold on I'm coming!"_ Smokes responded urgently.

_"I'm coming too!"_ Arcee reassured her.

She took off running as soon as her feet hit the floor as the fragging bird gave a loud shrill screech and yelled at her. "GET BACK HERE FLESHY! BOSS BOT IS GOING TO GET YOU ANYWAYS SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL AS COME ALONE PEACEFULLY!"

_"Holy slag is that Laserbeak!?"_ Arcee exclaimed through the comm link.

But she was only half paying attention as she dove out of the way as the fragging thing swooped down at her again trying to catch her in its talons. She heard guns whirring to life as Aednat started shooting her leviathan cannons at Laserbeak, but the cyberbird was too fast and kept dodging her attacks.

Coming up in a crouch she only had a brief warning where something, a much larger aura pricked at her senses, before the wall on the opposite end of the room blew inward. A massive silver mech came waltzing in through the hole in the wall. "Order: Come with me," he spoke in a dead monotone voice.

_"Little sweets get the frag away from him! I got caught up in the hall down by med bay by some drones so I need you to get somewhere safe okay?!"_

"Statement: Resistance is futile."

This...this was Soundwave...her uncle. And he was here to take her back to her real creator. Sheer terror filled her making her entire body lock up. She could see and hear Aednat growling at him furiously as her cannons whirred angrily. But she was completely frozen! She couldn't move!

She couldn't move! Not even when he lifted a small gun and fired a small blast of pure electromagnetic energy at her. It slammed into her frying her nerve endings and sending a brief flash of seering pain through her body. Her knees suddenly buckled as a numbing sensation quickly replaced it. She slumped forward and hit the floor paralyzed.

A large servo snatched her up as Aednat was sent flying from a rough kick from Soundwave's pede. Her ears were ringing, her body was completely frozen to the point that she couldn't even twitch. So she did the only thing that she could do in this situation. _**:DADDDDYYYYYY!:**_

* * *

><p>(Rachet s POV)<p>

_**:DADDDDYYYYYY!:** _The shrill scream coupled with the sheer terror coming through the creator bond had Ratchet slamming on his brakes so hard that he stopped dead in the middle of the road leaving trails of smoke wafting through the air.

_**:Sweetling what's wrong? What's going on?!:** _he sent back through their bond as the other Auto bots slid to a stop and approached him.

The bond was silent as nothing but wave after wave of terror kept bombarding him. _**:Soundwave! He did something to my body and I can't move!:**_

_**:SOUNDWAVE?!:** _he roared as his engines revved angrily.

_**:PLEASE DON'T LET HIM TAKE ME BACK THERE DADDY! I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK! PLEASE MAKE HIM LET ME GO!:**_

**'Ratchet?'** Optimus spoke calmly over the comm link.** 'What is going on?'**

**:JUST HOLD ON SWEETLING! WE'LL FIND YOU! I'LL COMM SMOKESCREEN AND THE OTHERS!:** he reassured her completely ignoring Optimus.

:They already know! The base is being attacked by drones and Smokes can't get to me: she practically sobbed.

His processor whirled with the emotions swirling madly through their bond. With hardly a thought he threw his alt into reverse and tore off backwards before slamming on his brakes and swinging his form around and tearing in the other direction. **'Optimus Lil contacted me over the sparkbond. The base is under attack and Soundwave has her. I don't care what you do but I am going back for my sparkling!'** he spoke over the public comm link.

Almost immediately every single engine roared angrily as the other bots followed in his tracks. Twin forms shot passed him red and gold. The twins were snarling all sorts of curses and death threats over the comm link.

'We will kill him!' they chorused simultaneously in a dark menacing tone.

_**:We're coming sweetling just hold on. We will find you I promise! Just don't tell them about our bond and I can use it to track you!:** _he instructed her while he did his best to send her waves of comfort and reassurances.

_**:Please hurry!:**_

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

_**:Please hurry!:** _She gasped as she was suddenly shoved into Soundwave's massive chassis. Darkness enveloped her as his hold slid closed after her leaving her in unsettling silence.

A whimper tore itself from her mouth...She missed Sides and Sunny! And her dad!

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Another cliffhanger! So Soundwave and Shockwave have finally got their hands on her! Oh and I don't know if I mentioned this but this story is actually taking place after the second movie and before the third. I might write a section for the third movie! Or I might go completely AU from here! Still in the air about that! What do you guys think? Let me know in your reviews!<p> 


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

I'm glad that you guys liked the last chapter! I don't know if I'm really happy with this chapter or not so I hope you guys like it anyways! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p><strong>Drip...Drip...Drip.<strong>

The soft sound of water dripping invaded her senses when she started coming to again. She struggled to remember what had happened to her to make her feel like absolute slag. Her body was sore and just plain felt like jello. She tried to move her arm but found that it wouldn't respond.

**Drip...Drip...Drip.**

Her brows scrunched up in irritation. That noise was really starting to slag her off! She tried yanking her arms up to cover her ears to block the sound out but they would not respond. Confusion overwhelmed her for a moment as she managed to force her tired eyes open to take in her surroundings.

Dark dingy gray walls surrounded her as she lay completely bare on a berth of some sort. Her eyes widened as she realized that her arms and legs were restrained. Not only that, but her neck was being squeezed in a painfully familiar way. She tried to turn her head but a searing pain in her neck stopped her.

Panic started to well up in her. Memories of what had happened started rushing back to her now clear mind. Soundwave had come for her after her dad and the twins had left. He had taken her to Primus knew where and now...now her real creator was going to experiment on her again.

_**:Dad? Dad are you there? Can you hear me?:** _She asked frantically over the bond while sending every ounce of fear that she was feeling.

The response was almost immediate. _**:I can hear you babyspark. We're coming for you just relax and hang on for me okay? I can feel your spark signature a few hours away. We'll be there soon.:**_ He sent back comfort primarily, but she could feel the fear that he was feeling himself.

She was set to respond to him when she heard a noise that made her mixed blood run cold.

**Stomp...Stomp...Stomp!** Pedes were stomping down the hall in her direction causing her entire body to lock as a reflex.

_**:Dad...he's coming!:** _she whimpered as the door to her room creaked open and several large forms came waltzing in, one that she recognized very well, her real creator. One of the other ones was Starscream, and the last mech was a huge mech, slightly smaller than Soundwave, but just as menacing. Megatron.

_**:Just hold on sweetling! We're on our way! Don't tell them about our bond okay? If they drug you then our link will be harder to track and I may lose you! I hate to have to tell you this but just be strong until we get there!:**_

Gulping she resisted the urge to shrink back into the berth. No she would not appear weak in front of them! She glared defiantly at her real creator as he took a calm step towards her stopping at the edge. That was when she realized that he had something in his servo, a smaller spark signature that she had not felt previously because the three larger signatures were overpowering the little one's signal.

"Scalpel is going to be taking a look at you sparklet," her real creator smirked sadistically at her and sat a small bot that oddly enough reminded her of an ant. He had six legs, a small thin body that was even similarly shaped to an ant, large red optics that looked like they were covered by glasses, and two antennas that were slicked back.

It...Scalpel scuttled over to her and dug his sharp legs into her stomach and arms as he climbed up on top of her. "Zuch a pretty little zing! Zis is za one whoz spark zou want to put in zat new frame?" He started making clicking noises. "Hand me ze scalpel pleaze."

There was a primal sounding roar over her spark bond. Her dad must have been able to hear what she was hearing. That meant that he might also feel what she was feeling physically as well. For just a moment she contemplated dulling the bond as Scalpel tore her shirt off and brought his blade to her stomach...but she didn't. If she did that he wouldn't be able to find her right?

Wrong! She managed to maintain her silence when inside she was cheering her own brilliance on. If anybot could direct her dad here without a sparkbond it was her!

Relaxing for a moment she allowed her senses to seep out from her. Over the numerous bots on the Decepticon base, out passed their own patrols, passed the trees and other living creatures...looking for a specific signature.

Pain exploded in her stomach almost disrupting her search. Gritting her teeth she managed to force herself not to react...she had been here too many times before to buckle under one stab wound. Pushing her power further she located her dad's signature roughly 150 miles away with the other Autobots. Every single fragging one of them. And not just them but Estelle and the others were with them.

Steeling herself internally against the onslaught of pain she forced herself to keep the bond open long enough to tell him where she was. _**:Dad keep going straight for another fifty miles okay? Then start heading northeast from there.:**_ Her body jerked again and spasmed as Scalpel cut through a sensitive circuit and vein. Pain went careening through her and through the bond...she had to dull it down. _**:Sorry dad but I'm going to dull the bond down now. I don't want you to feel this.:**_

Almost immediately he was yelling at her. _**:Don't you dare! Listen to me sweetling! I can help dull the pain down! Keep the bond-:**_

_**:I don't want you to feel it. Sorry dad:**_ She abruptly cut the bond off as his feelings of anger and rage washed over her. Scalpel scurried back up her chest and brought the scalpel down over her spark cavity. All she could do was watch him with sharp narrowed eyes.

He cut into her with a maniacal smile showcasing his sharp angry denta. "Zee zpark iz strong in zis one! It may be pozzible to tranzfer it into zee frame. No I am zertain zat it iz. Zhall I proceed now?"

"No we will wait until you are finished Scalpel. It isn't as if the Autobots are coming for her or even know where to find her," her creator murmured darkly. He stepped around the berth and focused on her with his one lone red optic as he slid his hold open and retrieved a small bundle of wires and metal.

When he sat it down next to her she found herself staring at it in disbelief. A sparkling frame was staring back at her with dead lifeless optics. It was black in color mostly, save for red chain like appendages that sprouted from under its helm like hair. Were they thinking that they were going to put her spark in that thing?! Why?! "Why would you...even want to...put my spark in that?" From here she could make out large doorlets and large butterfly like antennas that were also lifeless.

It wasn't her creator that answered her. "I need a mate to produce a sparkling for me. You are a very talented femme even for a hybrid...but the hybrid aspect can always be changed to suit my needs. You have a spark and we have a frame to transfer your spark into." A deep dark chuckle met her ears then making her want to shiver. "This frame is specially designed with an older style reproductive system. You see there aren't femmes around anymore that can get sparked by interface because they do not have the parts. So I had your creator create a frame especially for you that would be able to get sparked by interface."

She turned and threw a heated glare at the Decepticon leader. "Why not just interface with me in this form?"

His lips component pulled down in a frown. "Because. I will not bind myself to a half organic. And since I have decided that you will be mine you will not remain as you are. I will not have a mate that is so breakable."

"Like I'd ever mate with you." A saw buzzed to life loudly in her ears. She hissed and jerked when the rotating blade came to dig into her breast plate sending unbearable agony shooting through her body starting at her spark cavity. She felt the bones being separated and pulled back causing agonizing pain to course through her as her spark cavity was completely revealed. But she didn't scream or cry out. No she had been here too many times to make herself look so weak.

Megatron snarled at her. "Like I would ever ask politely! I take what I want!" He spun on his heel without another word and paused by the door. "I want the transfer done first thing in the morning! Comm me when you are about to proceed with it!" With that he was gone stomping back the way the he came.

Leaving her to have her insides prodded at while her creator just stood there and watched. Her eyes met his optic with as much hate and disdain as she could muster. Through the pain darkening the edges of her vision she clung to the hate she felt for him to keep herself strong. She did not cry out or scream...she held strong even when her spark was prodded at by Scalpel's tools.

Her vision started swimming after an undetermined amount of time. That last thing that she heard as blackness raced across her vision was her bastard creator telling Scalpel to hook her to a spark support system but to leave her wounds open. She barely managed to meet that optic one last time and utter a single hate filled sentence. "You're worse than slag..." before everything went dark.

* * *

><p>A blast shaking the base woke her up some time later. Her body came alive again sluggishly. Pain flared in all of her pain receptors. She couldn't move even if she tried and she didn't think that she could try.<p>

Another blast shook the base followed by pedes rushing passed the door to her room. She managed to sluggishly activate her sensory skills to ascertain what exactly was going on. Her senses spread out over the base stopping briefly at each spark signature until she found who she was looking for. Her dad...and her twins.

They were not far off and Ironhide was with them. However she also sensed that another large mech was nearby coming in her direction. It wasn't her real creator or any of the other mechs she had been exposed to so far during her stay. But it did feel somewhat familiar.

The signature stopped right outside her door for a brief moment before the door screeched open. A large blue mech...Thundercracker if she recalled, came barreling into the room. When his red optics landed on her laying cut open with her insides exposed on the berth he actually choked. "Primus what...?" He shook his helm and hastily came to her side and bent down to punch some numbers into her suppressor collar.

The collar fell off and clanked against the table. Surprise flashed through her for a moment. Was...was he helping her? "Why...are you...helping me?" she managed to force out.

He managed to look sheepish as he stood and backed off. "Just because I chose to be a con doesn't mean that I like watching others suffer. You don't deserve to be forced to be Megatron's mate." A loud sound rang out from down the hall making him snap his helm in its direction. "Look I have to go! Just make sure that you get out alive okay?" He gave her one last look before he turned and dashed out the door.

For a moment or so she just sat there dumbfounded that a con had helped her. And it was a good thing he had because if her dad had tried to move her while she had the suppressor collar on it would have shot the spikes straight through her neck and shocked her with enough electricity to fry her brain and overpower her spark. Thus killing her.

Her dad would be surprised... Focusing she reestablished their bond._** :Dad?:**_

Immediately a wave of intense relief washed over her. _**:Thank Primus! We're close by sweetling! We'll be there in a klik!:**_

The silence of the room engulfed her briefly after that until she heard several sets of pedes rushing down the corridor outside her holding room. Not even an astrosecond later her dad's form came bursting into the room followed by her twins, and lastly by Ironhide.

When their optics landed on her however they all froze save for her dad who cursed and rushed to her side. He snarled something about cons who were going to die slowly and painfully as he jabbed her arm with a needle containing a pain suppressor of some sort.

Her body went numb almost immediately. She wasn't stupid...she couldn't be moved like this. Her insides would go sprawling all over the place if they even tried...

"I need a hand over here."

Sunny came forward while Ironhide and Sides were still too shocked or angry to move. He activated his alt mode and holoform at the same time that her dad did. "Hey babe..." he greeted her in a gentle tone. It was obvious that he just wanted to go and kill something slowly and painfully but he stayed for her. "What do you need me to do Ratchet?"

Her dad started pushing her bones back into place as he handed a small dense needle and thread to Sunny. "We need to move fast! I need you to start stitching her up while I set the bones into place."

Sunny nodded once and took the offered items and threaded the needle.

"Why don't you just cauterize it?" she suggested tiredly.

Her dad growled at her. "I am not burning your wounds shut! So sit there and let us work!" With that he went back to pushing her collar bone and breast plate into place.

While he was doing that Sunny started stitching her wound up from the bottom. Every time he went to slide the needle into her skin he would seem to freeze, like he was scared that he was hurting her or something, but then he'd force himself to do it anyways.

Some might find sitting there with their insides revealed disconcerting...she was used to it though. In fact knowing that it was her dad and Sunny tending to her made her feel...safe. Even exposed like this she knew that they would protect her. And both Ironhide and Sides were guarding the door to prevent any surprise visitors. Yeah she was feeling safe...safe enough to go to sleep.

Her eyes started sliding closed. Sleep. The blessed darkness where only your dreams can harm you. How she craved it... She felt her spark stutter once weakly as it slowed down to a crawl. The spark support machine would keep her alive. Barely. So she wasn't worried about it.

Or she wouldn't have been if somebot hadn't leaned over her and started yelling at her to wake the frag up. Her eyes slid open slightly catching a bright flash of green above her.

"Wake the frag up! Do not go into recharge! Look at me!"

Hands were in her chest trying to undo the damage done to her spark. Frantic blue optics locked with hers. It was like his voice was just a whisper in her head for how loud it was. But she tried to obey anyways even when it was so fragging hard.

But she just couldn't...She was too tired...Everything went black. Blessed blackness.

* * *

><p>(Rachet s POV)<p>

The entire scene was horrifying. Blood and Energon splattered all over the berth. A large gaping wound trailing from his sparkling's abdomen to the top of her chest. He was doing everything that he could to stabilize her but her condition was not good.

She was unable to maintain consciousness and was now laying completely limp while he and Sunstreaker rushed to finish readying her to be moved. He used a special medical adhesive to seal her bones together and as soon as Sunstreaker finished suturing her wound he moved to bind her chest together to hold the bones together.

It had not escaped his notice that there was a sparkling frame on the table. It made him question what the slag they were trying to do to her! Were they really going to transfer her spark into a Cybertronian frame? He wouldn't put it passed them.

It was not going to happen on his watch though.

As soon as she was as ready as she would ever be to have him move her he deactivated his holoform and gingerly placed her in his sparkling hold next to his spark. This way he could use his spark to stabilize her until they returned to base. "One of you grab that frame to take back," he instructed.

Ironhide made his way over and grabbed it before stuffing it into his hold since Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were plastered to his side. "Got it! Let's move!"

Together the four of them made their way back out into the corridor and back in the direction of the base entrance. On the way he commed Optimus. **'We found her! We're on our way back to the main entrance, meet us there!'**

**'Roger that! Autobots retreat!'**

The link was cut immediately so that Soundwave could not track them. In all honesty it was possible that he could and most likely had caught that little bit of a conversation that they had just had. So they had to move fast because Soundwave was still on base as was Starscream at least. Megatron was unaccounted for but he wasn't taking any chances. Nor was he taking any chances of running into Shockwave. Not with his sparkling so hurt.

They turned another corner near the communications room which was relatively close to the main entrance. Soundwave was not in the room that much he could see when they passed by. But that did not mean that he was not around.

Every room and corner they passed by made him tense with weapons readied to react to any surprise attack. So far there had been nothing.

A sudden plasma shot flew by barely missing Sideswipe's helm as the red mech just barely ducked out of the way. He too had to duck to avoid getting hit as well. He could feel his sparkling being jostled in his hold and he growled warningly at the Decepticon communications officer.

Smoke wafted out of the barrel of Soundwave's blaster as he stared impassively at the four of them. "Order: Hand over hybrid femme."

In response Sideswipe and Sunstreaker armed themselves with their swords while Ironhide placed himself directly in front of him and charged up his cannons.

"Like we would ever hand her over to you! We're going to rip you apart!" Sunstreaker snarled while his optics were flashing red.

Soundwave paid him no attention. "Repeat order: Hand over hybrid femme. Statement: Or be offlined."

Sideswipe suddenly lunged at the communications officer locking blades with Soundwave's right arm and twisting around to kick the blaster from the larger con's servo. Sunstreaker rushed forward on Soundwave's other side and ducked down low to aim at the joints in the armor which were the weak spots.

Ironhide charged up his leviathan cannons and aimed them at Soundwave when the large con activated his tentacles and smacked Sideswipe off with them sending the red frontliner crashing into the far wall. Next he turned on Sunstreaker and fired several plasma shots at the golden mech. Sunstreaker side stepped them and slammed his blade down in Soundwave's side making Energon spew forth from the wound.

"That's for what you did to our femme!" he snarled before Soundwave sent him reeling with a sharp smack of his tentacles. His golden form hit the wall but it didn't seem to slow him down at all. He jumped back up instantly and rushed Soundwave again at the same time that Sideswipe pulled out his blaster and started firing shots at the communications officer.

"Statement: Femme is not yours," Soundwave deadpanned as he cleanly dodged Sideswipe's gunfire. "Statement: Femme is Lord Megatron's."

He tensed from his position behind Ironhide and growled low in his chassis. "What the pit does Megatron want with MY sparkling?!"

"Statement: Sparkling is not yours. Statement: Sparkling is Shockwave's." Soundwave spoke in his monotone while dodging attack after attack from Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

Ironhide charged up his cannons and jumped into the fight by laying down fire every time Soundwave went to try and attack either of the twins.

The two of them were completely crazed. Optics were a pure white from their Gladiatorial programming taking over. They were attacking viciously without ever giving Soundwave even a moment to recover or counterattack. It didn't help Soundwave s case any that the wound in his side was leaking a substantial amount of Energon either.

The terror twins moved in complete tandem, moves flowing and completely synchronized both from their bond and from years of fighting together just like this. And it was a terrifying and awe inspiring sight to behold even he had to admit that.

Together they forced Soundwave back while he lashed out at them tearing into their armor. They repeatedly clashed blades against Soundwave's heavily plated arms. That left Soundwave's only means of attacking to be his tentacles and Sideswipe had already hacked off a few of them.

"Statement: Hand over femme. Statement: She is to be Megatron's bondmate."

Deafening roars met Soundwave's statement from every single one of them. The twins started attacking even more viciously with Sideswipe delivering a roundhouse kick to Soundwave's helm. Sunstreaker followed up by jamming his sword into the seams in Soundwave's stomach armor and forcing the con back against a wall with Sideswipe's help.

"IRONHIDE NOW! TAKE HIS HELM OFF!" Sunstreaker roared.

"You don't need to tell me twice," the weapons specialist smirked sadistically as he powered his cannons up again and took aim at Soundwave's helm and fired.

All of them had a fantastic view of Soundwave's helm exploding in a mess of metal scraps, bright blue Energon, and frayed wires. A fitting end for the communications officer!

His large frame hit the floor at the twin's pedes. Sunstreaker grinned maliciously and kicked it before re sheathing his swords and making his way over to him with Sideswipe following close behind. "Is she okay?"

"Yes but we need to be getting out of here so that I can properly treat her." With that he led the three of them passed Soundwave's deactivated frame which he kicked as he passed by it. Damn fragger deserved to be killed after what he had done! And that wasn't even anything compared to what he was doing to do to Shockwave when he got his servos on him!

For now however they needed to get Lilah back to the base for proper medical treatment. They quickly made their way back through the base, this time being able to find the exit with no more incident. They met up with the others and together all of them made their way back to the base.

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

Pain. All she could feel was pain running over her from head to toe. Her head was pounding and her limbs ached...her chest felt like it was being burned slowly from the inside out.

There were others where she was...she could sense them. All of them were familiar to her so she relaxed her tense body. They would not hurt her.

She scrunched her eyes and forced them to open with more effort than she cared to admit. The first thing that she saw were three faces leaning down over her. One red, one green, and one gold. Her spark stuttered in relief when her vision cleared enough for her to make out the faces of the three most important mechs in her life. "Dad...Sides...Sunny," she managed to get out in a raspy voice before she started coughing due to the scratching in her throat.

Before she could even ask for it one of them had activated their holoforms and shoved a glass up to her face. It was Sides holoform and he even helped prop her up so that she didn't have to strain herself by doing it herself. He only let her have a few sips before he pulled back. "Little sips sweetspark. You don't want to upset your stomach."

She nodded when he laid her back down so gently that she barely even felt her wounds pull. "You guys came."

Sunny caressed her face softly with a tender contemplative look in his optics. "What? Did you think that we would ever leave you to be Megatron's broodmare?" He scowled and plopped down on a berth...apparently her bed was settled in the middle of two medical berths.

Didn't have to wonder who's idea that was. She leaned into the touch and relaxed completely. "No. It's just...that...that was the first time when I was in that situation that somebot came to save me. Besides Moondancer of course." Unlike the last time she had thought of her this time was not wrought with pain. She was able to think on all that had happened with a sort of contentedness. Yes her mommy was gone but...they had been happy together. And for one moment she just wanted to remember that happiness over the pain. It wasn't hard when she was so happy and relieved that her dad and lovers had come for her and saved her. She was too grateful to feel regret and guilt.

"How bad is it?" she asked distractedly when Sunny caressed her neck by her ear sending tingles through her spine.

The caresses stopped abruptly as a series of strangled growls echoed throughout the room. Her dad managed to make himself answer her question though, he did not look happy about it. "You were cut open from your abdomen to your throat. Your spark cavity was completely exposed and your breast plate was sawed in half..." A low growl was issued from his mouth components. "There were multiple puncture wounds on your arms, stomach, and chest from Scalpel. You were Energon depleted to dangerous proportions. Truthfully without the sparksupport system you would have offlined."

More growls. Her gaze swept over the other mechs in the room. Ironhide, Optimus, Prowl, Jazz, Smokescreen, Bluestreak, and even Bee. Arcee was there as well standing near all of the other hybrids save for Demetri. Estelle looked angry, Miata looked sparkbroken, and both Jezz and Annie were looking ready to burst into tears at any moment.

A soft caress on her hand brought her attention to Sides. "Did...did they...you know?"

She didn't even need to ask him what he meant by that... "No they didn't. Megatron said that he would not interface with a hybrid. His plan was to transfer my spark into the sparkling frame. Apparently it is specially made to allow for a femme to be sparked solely by interfacing without the need for the Allspark."

"So they were going to turn you into a Cybertronian?" Arcee murmured quietly.

Snorting she shifted to get more comfortable on her bed. "I'm already half Arcee. I already have a spark. You transfer sparks from frame to frame when the need arises don't you? So it's not so hard to believe."

"But your spark is small...how would it ever be able to power a full sized frame?" This time it was Prowl that asked.

Estelle piped up and answered him before she could. "Our sparks are small compared to yours, but they possess more concentrated energy. So if her spark were to be placed in a Cybertronian frame it would expand and adapt to the new frame and grow with it. It is possible. And Lilah's spark is much larger and possesses more energy than the rest of ours so it is more plausible in her case."

She nodded in agreement with that assessment. "It is. Our sparks adapt in the womb to shrink in on themselves so as not to destroy our own bodies. Only a small amount of our actual energy is functioning at any given time."

Her dad's optics met hers with a scrutinizing look in them.

One that made her flinch back because it was the _'you are in trouble'_ look that she was rapidly becoming familiar with.

Those deep blue optics narrowed even more when he leaned down so that he was literally inches from her face. "So does that mean that you run the risk of destroying your own body if you overexert your spark and use too much energy?" he asked in a soft incredibly calm tone of voice.

Even the bond felt strangely calm underneath all of the slowly building anger and suspicion. She shifted and ignored the flash of pain that it caused her. "Umm it can happen because our bodies aren't technically made to handle that much energy. But we all know our limits pretty well and we know not to surpass them. Don't worry about it!" she finished off handedly.

"You didn't even tell them that part?" Estelle asked incredulously.

"I forgot! Tabhair dom sos fucking Estelle!" she snapped tiredly. After all that she had been through in the last however many days they all wanted to go all freaky crazy on her? Not happening! "I'm not perfect! I don't think about disintegrating my own body because that's fragging morbid okay?!"

Her snappy tone earned her scathing looks from her dad and Estelle. Primus her head was pounding! Her entire body hurt like a motherslagging glitch! And they wanted to go all crazy on her?!

_**:Why didn't you mention this to me?:**_

Groaning she locked eyes with her dad's angry optics. _**:I forgot to mention it. I'm always careful of how much power I use so I just never thought of it. Besides I don't need to use any power to sense things really and when I do have to use some it's the bare minimum. So relax because I'm not going to spontaneously combust tomorrow or anything.:**_

_**:We'll talk about this when you are well.:**_ he said in a clipped tone. _**:For now let me get you something for the pain that you are in.:**_

Normally she would argue about being injected with pain suppressors but if it got him to stop cursing her out she was all for it. Though from the looks on Sides and Sunny's faces they were going to have something to say about Estelle's slip of the mouth as well.

But when the soothing numbness slid into her veins when her dad pricked her IV she just didn't care at the moment. Her tired body slumped, eyelids pulling down against her will as sleep tried to take her under again. Her body quickly gave in however...she needed the rest for her healing abilities to repair the damage done to her body.

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

A golden form lay slumped against the makeshift berth sluggishly. He had just come barreling out of a deep recharge from a bad vid file invading his processor. The vid file of his intended mate cut open...he had vividly seen her metallic like organs pulsing and writhing.

Shifting over onto his other side he took in both the recharging forms of his Red, and his twin. Ratchet sat not too far away on another free berth. None of them had left the med bay in days while Lilah recovered. Her condition had been so bad that she was healing much more slowly than she ever had previously. In fact Ratchet had taken to making her drink Energon to speed up her body's recovery. The additives were good for her spark and organs and helped stimulate them to heal faster.

It still wasn't really making a huge impact though. Sighing he checked his chronometer and grimaced when he saw that it was after six in the morning. He wouldn't be going back to recharge anytime soon. Might as well get up and get Lilah some warm Energon before she woke up.

Sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the berth he hopped down and made his way over to the cabinet where Ratchet stored Lil's Energon. He opened it and retrieved one of the tiny cubes before taking it over to a small microwave and popping it in on thirty astroseconds. While he was waiting for it to finish heating his audio receptors picked up a faint whimpering in the direction of their makeshift berth.

Turning on his pedes he quickly made his way back over to his side of the berth and leaned over it until he was propped over Lil's sweating form. "Babe?" He gently touched her cheek feeling the slick sweat coating her skin. "Babe wake up."

She whimpered again and reached out for him in her recharge. "Sunny..."

"I'm here babe. Wake up for me please?" Ever so softly he leaned down so that she could touch his face plates. Her servos splayed out over his plates almost frantically pulling him closer to her until his face was almost buried in her stomach.

"Sunny...it hurts..." Her body seemed to arch and curl around him as she whimpered in pain. "Don't leave me..."

"I won't. I'm not going anywhere I promise Red." He nudged Sides awake over the bond as he indulged in his femme's apparent need for physical contact.

His twin jolted online with a start and flipped over onto his side facing them tiredly. "Wha?! What's going on?!" His twin's optics landed on him with his face buried into their femme's body and widened. Sides optics dulled for a moment while he probably took a picture for later blackmail use. They brightened back up instantly when Red whimpered again and clutched at him tighter. "Oh slag bad dreams again? I'll wake up Ratchet."

The berth shook slightly when Sides slid off of it, the move making Lilah whimper and tighten her hold on him more. "Get the Energon from the microwave too Sides," he instructed his twin who was leaned over Ratchet shaking him awake.

Sides turned with his mouth opened to say something when Ratchet suddenly shot up and uppercut him in the jaw out of nowhere. His twin's red frame hit the floor with a loud clang as the CMO looked around frantically. "Where are you?! You rotten slagging glitched aft mother fragger?! I'll-" Ratchet's ranting suddenly died down when he caught sight of him. "What the pit are you doing to my sparkling?! You'll aggravate her sutures!"

"Bad dreams," was all he said as Lilah whimpered again and pressed her face into his forehelm.

The sound spurred Ratchet into action. He threw himself off of the berth and jumped up on their makeshift berth before shoving him aside so that he could gently pick Lilah up in his servos. A soft hiss sounded when Ratchet opened his chest plating revealing his spark. He brought Lilah to it and pressed her against it.

Her own spark rose to a glow on the surface of her skin even in her recharge. There was a soft thrumming sound when their energy touched; Ratchet's spark flashed a brighter shade of blue. In response Lil's own spark darkened and flashed once brightly.

They were talking over their sparkbond. Rarely did you see it happening like this because most bots did not go around showcasing their spark to the world. One spark would flash, the other would flash of darken in response to one of their emotions, it kept repeating like this for almost an entire breem.

Finally Lilah's spark receded back into her skin as her body came out of recharge. She made a small confused sound. "Dad? Why am I in your hold?" She swiveled around and gazed at him. "And why is it open?"

Ratchet extracted her from his hold and placed her back on her berth. "You were having a bad dream. Sideswipe woke me up."

"Oh...where's Sides then?" Lilah asked quietly.

A loud groan sounded before Sides pulled himself up off of the floor and propped himself up on the side of the berth. "Right here sweetspark. Your opiluk came out of recharge and punched me so hard that my processor froze for a few kliks." He rubbed the large dent on his jaw and winced. "Damn."

"Poor Sides," she yawned and slowly sat up. "I'm hungry."

"Energon first," Ratchet ordered.

His twin forced himself to his pedes and went to retrieve the Energon that he had heated, after reheating it of course. Less than a klik later Sides reappeared at his side and offered her the cube.

She grimaced and took it sipping at it slowly. "Yuck it taste gross!" Her face twisted into the most adorable expression of disgust. "What's in this stuff anyways? It tastes worse than motor oil!"

Sides made a face at her. "How would you know what motor oil tastes like?"

A blush decorated her cheeks. "Umm well one of the workers at the shop switched my water out for motor oil once...I got a real big mouthful of the stuff."

He snorted. "I'm glad that you don't work there anymore. If one of them did something like that to you I would have to murder them in the most painful way."

They fell into a companionable silence after that while she finished her Energon. When she was done Ratchet took her empty cube and tossed it into a nearby waste bin. "I have some work to do so I will be in my office if you need me okay? No stressful activity, no straining yourself, and no leaving the med bay." That last bit was directed at him and Sides before Ratchet patted Lil once on the head and stomped into his office.

Silence dominated after he left. Until he broke it by asking the question that was plaguing his processor. "What were you dreaming about babe?"

Her optics dimmed down into a pained expression. But she answered him regardless. "I...was having a nightmare where...I was still in the con base. You came to save me but...Shockwave killed you."

"I see. But I didn't die babe. I'm right here alive and well."

Her optics brightened slightly as a small strained smile forced its way onto her lips. "I know. But I always have nightmares...it's just a part of who I am."

Both he and Sides were silent. What could he say to that? It made him frustrated that there was nothing that they could do to make her feel better. At least not right now. And at this rate bonding was not going to be something that would be happening soon enough. If this recent spell in the con base had set her back any it meant that they were going to have to invest even more time in helping her heal before they could sparkbond.

And neither of them were particularly happy about the con's interference in their courtship of her. Nor were they happy that Megatron was after her. Not that they were planning on letting him get his servos on her again. Ever!

Because nobot messed with the Terror Twin's femme and got away with it! That went for Scalpel, Shockwave, Megatron, and the rest of those rotten slaggers! And when pay day came all of them were going to find that they had taken on more than they could handle.

They would make sure of it!

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Translations: Tabhair dom sos fucking Estelle! Give me a fucking break Estelle. I'm not sure if I'm happy with this chapter like I said. I might redo it at some point. When I was typing it I was like ohh man it would be so interesting if I just put her in that sparkling frame! But then I was like no because then I would have to do a whole segment on her growing up in the frame then the bonding would take even longer to get to. So nope I didn't do it! Let me know what you think please!<p> 


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

So I'm still not sure if I liked the last chapter... But I wanted to clarify something about the sparkling bonding to Megatron comment. Megatron was not going to bond to her as a sparkling, he was going to have Shockwave and Soundwave raise her to maturity and then he was going to bond with her! Just wanted to clarify that! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>After a week, lots of fussing from almost anybot imaginable, and just as much poking and prodding from her dad, she was finally allowed to leave the med bay. She was off of missions for another week though while her body recovered, and Sides and Sunny were given half shifts for the week so that they could spend more time with her.<p>

It would be even more awesome if her dad hadn't caught her before she left the med bay and sent Sides and Sunny out so that he could talk to her. Since she knew what it was about she just sat quietly on her bed waiting as patiently as she could for what was most likely not going to be a pleasant conversation.

Her dad pulled his stool over in front of the medical berth her bed was sitting on and plopped down on it looking quite irritated. He stared her down and crossed his arms over his chassis. "Well? Are you going to explain to me why you did not tell me about the side effects of over exerting your spark earlier?"

Ouch he was mad...she could feel the anger wafting over their bond and slag it was strong. Almost as strong as the worry and fear that she could sense as well. She sighed and kicked her feet absent mindly against the side of her bed making a loud pinging sound when her heels hit the metal underside. "Well I never really thought about it until Estelle said something. I don't normally have to push myself hard enough that it's a problem."

"And that makes it okay? You are my sparkling even if you are grown! What would I do if you ended up offlining yourself during a battle?"

She winced, the feelings of anguish were quite strong, and she herself could relate to them quite well. "Dad I don't-let me explain a few things to you okay?"

He nodded once looking for all the world like he was astroseconds away from throwing a conniption fit.

Sighing she delved into the explanation of her powers and how they differed from the other hybrids. "Ok so I am a sensory type as you already know." At his curt nod she sighed again, louder this time in exasperation, and continued on. "My precognitive skill is my strongest skill okay?" Another nod from him. "Ok so let me tell you a little fact about it. My precognitive sensory skill is more sensitive when I am fighting an opponent who is much stronger than me okay? So against an opponent like Starscream, I would completely suppress my pulse power so that my sensitivity was increased. It is easier to follow the aura if yours is much weaker, so I rarely ever use too much power. And when I do it's a quick concentrated burst unlike the others when they fight."

"With say...Annie or Jezz, they do not have enough brute strength to penetrate a con's chassis unless they are utilizing an elevated pulse aura. So when they fight they have to keep a steady supply working through their bodies. But for me and say Miata who scored very high in brute strength, we can use small bursts of pulse to augment attacks as they come and they are effective. As for the energy balls, those are concentrated bursts that can be done without a previously elevated aura."

Her dad raised an optic ridge at her. "So are there any other side effects to using your power that I should know about? In case I need to treat you or the others?"

Humming thoughtfully, she decided to come clean about everything that she had forgotten to elaborate on earlier in her stay. "Well overusing power can weaken us temporarily. It can even make us ill as our body recovers from it. However that only happens when quite a considerable amount of power has been used in a drawn out period of time. Last time it happened was when Miata fought against Dreadout by herself. She came back and was sick for a week."

He winced internally over their bond feeling pity for her momentarily. Not that he showed it on the outside or anything. "So you can get ill? Are the symptoms like human illnesses?"

"More or less. The body is affected in various ways such as dizziness, nausea, aches, pains, etc... But we always bounce back relatively quickly afterwards."

He hummed thoughtfully and grabbed a datapad from his desk to tap something into his schedule. "Well then, I guess I will have to schedule monthly checkups for all of you hybrids so that I can make sure that all of you are functioning properly."

She blanched and paled...not monthly checkups! While he was busy with his datapad she slowly crept off of her bed and tip toed towards the end of the medical berth. A sharp commanding voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Sit. Down. You are not yet excused."

Whining low in her throat her aft quickly found its way back to her medical bed. She sat there whining and moaning as her dad continued inputting things into his schedule. Estelle was not going to like this one fragging bit! It was already pushing Estelle's sense of safety and pride just being here...monthly checkups from her dad were not going to be well received. She hoped that he could hear the thoughts that she was projecting at him clearly.

"I can. And they do not make a difference. This is nonnegotiable," he finished typing things into his datapad and placed it on his desk. Optics meeting hers, he leaned forward and gathered her form in his servos, before bringing it to his chassis and holding her just over his spark chamber. "I am glad that you are okay."

The loud humming from his spark made it hard to hear him, though it did soothe her. She managed to make it out however. "Me too. I lost everything before...I was scared that I would lose it all again. But I'm glad that I didn't...I'm happy that I'm here again."

A soft rumble from him shook her body. "I am glad that I did not lose you either sweetling. You are my sparkling...the one being in this life that means that most to me."

Her spark soared furiously; feeling like it was flying with how fast it was fluttering. His words made her feel so fragging happy that all of the bad things couldn't even touch her in this moment. She focused all of that emotion and slammed it into him letting him feel how ecstatic she felt.

A soft chuckle met her ears. "I love you babyspark."

"I love you too dad."

He held her tightly for another few moments, maybe a breem, before he relented and sat her down on the floor hesitantly. "Be careful today sweetling. Stay close to the twins and do not strain yourself at all! I will come and collect you after I am finished with work for the day." He patted her back once to send her on her way.

"Ok see you dad!" she called back as she hit the button to open the med bay doors. Both her twins were there waiting patiently for her, if you called Sides sitting there hitting his helm against the wall patient of course. "Umm Sides...don't do that."

His helm popped up and whipped around in her direction instantly. He shot up to his pedes and bounded over to her, snatching her up from the floor and hugging her against his chassis. "You took forever sweetspark!"

"No I didn't! It was only like a breem or two," she argued jovially. Her dad had told her that the twins Gladiatorial programming would be haywire for a while after her kidnapping. So they would not want to let her out of their sight at all if they could help it. It was kind of cute though...since they had been going overkill with their protectiveness.

Sunny came over and nuzzled her gently, his hot vents trickling up her neck. "Too long. It was way too long for us babe. We were about to break in and botnap you from him."

His vents tickled her making her squirm. "Stop! That tickles Sunny!" She snorted out a laugh and batted at him with her hand.

All he did was lean back and raise an optic ridge at her, looking quite confused. "What? What is a tickle?"

She blushed in embarrassment. "Ah don't worry about it Sunny."

A disapproving tsk was her answer. Sunny leaned forward into her face and blew hot vents over her skin again making her squirm and giggle. "St-stop!" Once again she batted him away carelessly. Too bad she had forgotten that Sides was watching the whole thing, thus he was getting inspiration to do what he did best...be a menace.

The next thing she knew rapid vents were hitting the back of her neck making her squeal out a laugh. She squirmed, carefully so as not to hurt her freshly healed body, away from the red menace. As much as she could when he was holding her firmly against his upper chassis. "STOP IT SIDES!" she cried out shrilly. She started kicking his chassis as he started venting harder against her skin. "You're gonna make me piss myself stop!"

"Nooooo," Sides drawled in an amused tone. His attack suddenly picked up in intensity.

Squealing she felt tears building up in her eyes staining the dark blue glow of her skin from her blush an even deeper blue as they spilled down her cheeks. The attack suddenly stopped so fast that she was left whirling when the sensations stopped. The next thing she knew Sides had her turned towards him.

He looked panicked for some reason, optics locked on her but flashing with fear and regret. "Slag sweets! Did I hurt you again? Do you need to go back and see Hatchet?"

Something smacked Sides in the back of the helm suddenly, before an angry growl sounded through the hall. "Idiot! You should've just stopped when she told you to! Now you hurt her and I'm going to hurt you!" Sunny snarled.

She couldn't help it, she laughed at them. In her defense they were so fragging cute that she just couldn't help it. Honestly they thought that Sides had hurt her by tickling her! Their innocence in such matters was truly endearing. She managed to stop laughing long enough to explain to them that she wasn't hurt however. "I'm ok Sides, I'm just really ticklish."

"Ti-ck-lish?" Sides sounded out slowly.

"Yes. Squishy bodies sometimes have certain points...like neural nodes that cause an intense feeling like...like this!" She held out her hands and fluttered her fingers against the sensitive wires in both of their necks making Sides snort out a small laugh. "See? It tickles right?" At his nod she grinned and pulled back. "Well for squishies, or half squishies, it can feel so stimulating that it can make us cry. Not in pain but in pleasure!"

"So it felt good?" Sunny murmured interestedly.

"Yeah. Kind of. Some people don't like being tickled. They don't like the sensation of being tickled. So if somebot asks you not to do it you probably shouldn't do it."

Sides frowned. "So did you like it?"

"Sometimes. But right now I don't think that you should do it because I'm still kind of sore." They both gave her guilty looks that she waved off. "Don't feel bad about it handsome. I needed a good laugh anyways."

Sides lifted his mouth components into a grin as he turned and made his way back down the hall. "I bet you did. Still can't believe that...no never mind." He suddenly shook his helm as if to clear the thoughts out of his helm. His optics drifted over to her again. "So what do you want to do? I think that the other hybrids wanted to see you as soon as you got out of the med bay."

Her dad's earlier words came back to her mind then...maybe she should talk to them about the whole physical thing that he was insisting on. "Yeah that sounds good. I have something that I need to talk to them about anyways." Yay! Now she had to brave Estelle's subsequent freak out when she told her what her adoptive dad was insisting on.

There was a brief flash of amusement from her bond with him before it went silent again. Well at least he was going to get some amusement out of it cause she sure wasn't.

She honed in on her surroundings again and realized quite suddenly that the twins were taking her to the rec room. A quick scan of the area informed her that the other hybrids were gathered in the rec room waiting for her with Arcee and Jazz. Well at least she had four bots to run pass interference for her when Estelle shit bricks.

_**:Oh it is not that bad! Tell her to grow up!:** _her dad muttered irritably.

In response she sent a light shove over the bond as a way of answering him. She tuned him out afterwards because they had arrived at the rec room and the twins had taken her inside. Her eyes quickly found Annie sitting on Jazz's shoulder talking rather animatedly to the silver saboteur. Jezz was sitting at his pedes in a bored manner. Estelle was talking to Miata near Arcee, and Arcee was watching over her charges carefully.

The chatter in the room stopped completely however as soon as she was carted into the room. A sharp squeal rang out just astroseconds afterwards, Annie lunged up on Jazz's shoulder and lunged, clean across the room, smacking into Sides chassis with a loud **'whack'**, before tumbling down into his servo where she sat dazed for roughly half a klik.

"Umm Annie...? Are you okay?" Her aura seemed dazed but not pained so she concluded that she had not harmed herself. That made her relax a little bit easier. At least it did...

Until the light finally returned to Annie's pretty brown eyes. The brunette suddenly shot up and lunged at her tackling her in a bear hug and squealing in her ear like her life depended on it. "LILYBOOOOOO I WAS SO SCARED THAT YOU WEREN'T GOING TO COME BACK! WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE WITHOUT MY MAIN BITCH?! BESIDES JEZZY BUT I LOVE YOU AS MUCH AS I LOVE HER!" she erupted into loud wailing, real wailing as she ranted about how much life would have sucked without her, and how much she would have missed her, and how she was the only one besides Jezz and Sides that liked to prank with her, and how pranking would have no meaning without her.

And she for her part stayed there completely still even when her body was protesting the rough treatment. Annie was strong, rated B in terms of raw power. Even if it was the lowest of the group it was still more than enough to make her body ache. Still...she didn't move while she let the more emotional member of the group cry it out like a baby. "I'm okay though Annie. I'm here and well and we can do more pranks soon!" she reassured her while rubbing soothing circles on her back. While she was doing that she focused on sending a wave of calm over the room to quiet the distress and worry that she could clearly feel even with her power dulled down.

It worked relatively quickly. Though her efforts did earn her a look from Estelle who seemed to have caught onto what she was doing. In response she just shrugged carelessly and pointed to Annie whose cries were quickly dying down.

Soon they stopped altogether and her friend pulled back from her to wipe the tear tracks off of her cheeks. Annie's eyes met hers again and immediately welled up with tears again.

She stiffened and held up her hands to prevent another attack on her body. "It's ok! Relax! I'm right here Annie and I'm ok! Just breathe deep in and out! That's it!"

"Ok..." Annie sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"Good." Looking up at Sides, she gestured for him to put them down. When he gave her a single raised optic ridge in response she scowled and jabbed her finger down at the ground again. "Put me down please handsome?!"

Sides muttered something under his breath about troublesome femmes and the dangers of the ground level before he did as she asked and sat them both down.

Shaking her head at him and latching onto Annie, she dragged the woman over to Jezz while gesturing to Estelle and Miata to come over. Jezz hugged her once she was close enough and looked her body over to ascertain if she really was well.

Her actions were repeated by Estelle, while Miata stayed back out of the group and eyed her sadly. She barely even noticed her though since she was being prodded at by Estelle the mother hen.

"Are you sore? Are you sure that you should be walking? Do you want Annie or Jezz to stay with you tonight so that they can take care of you?" The questions fell from Estelle's lips one after the other, so fast that there was no time to even answer one before the next was being asked.

"Kind of. It's fine my dad said I could. And no my dad will make sure that I'm well cared for," she answered them as soon as there was a moment of silence.

Estelle pursed her lips and met her eyes guiltily. "We should have come to your aid sooner Lily. We should have bypassed the drones without fighting them...you are priority over anything else. We failed to protect you and for that I am sorry."

She grabbed Estelle's shoulders as firmly as she met her gaze. "Do not apologize Stelle. Sometimes things happen and we truly do not have any control over them. If you had come to my aid you may have been taken as well. So I for one am glad that you couldn't get to me."

"But-" Estelle started.

"No buts. I mean it. The entire group is priority Stelly. Would you have endangered them for me? There was nothing that you could have done...and besides..." She grinned cheekily. "I'm alive and well. That's good enough huh?"

Estelle returned her grin with a small one of her own. "I suppose so."

"Right. We're all alive and well. That's a freaking miracle in itself isn't it?"

All of the gathered hybrids laughed at their little inside joke, even Miata. She sobered up though and decided to just bring up her and dad's earlier conversation. Subtly was never one of her strong suits... "My dad wants all of us to start coming to him for monthly checkups!" she blurted out suddenly.

Dead silence met her words for a brief moment before Annie protested loudly. "NOOOO DOCTORS! NEEDLES! YUCK!"

Both she and Estelle threw her 'the look' even if hers was probably showcasing how amused she really was. Leave it to Annie to break all of the tension at the best possible moment.

"And why should we do that? What exactly does he want to do that for?" Estelle asked defensively, eyes showing every ounce of fear and distrust she was still feeling for mechs.

"Well I explained our pulse levels to him today and how they work...and he decided that to ensure our safety and wellbeing checkups were required." Lame. Pit she made that whole explanation sound so lame. The worst part was that Estelle didn't look any less unconvinced than she had before. Groaning loudly in defeat, she grabbed Estelle again and shook her roughly. "I will come to your checkups if it makes you feel better."

"I just do not understand why he feels that we need them. We know the limits of our power and the side effects of over exerting it Lily. Have we not had centuries to learn both under duress, and of our own volition?"

"Yes we have. But arguing this point won't get you anywhere Stelle. When my dad gets into one of his moods there is no stopping him when he wants to do something. If he wants to make this checkup thing mandatory, it will be mandatory trust me. Just ask Sides and Sunny, he tracks them down and drags them back every few months for a checkup, and they still haven't found a way to prevent it from happening."

Sides piped up at that moment. "She's right! The Hatchet is like an unstoppable force of nature. Evading him is pointless because he will employ any means to catch you so that he can drag you to the med bay for a checkup. And since Lil is here I wouldn't put it passed him to make her help him out. So you're screwed either way."

"Thank you for that lovely explanation Sides!" She elbowed him in the knee joint as a reprimand. Now she had to play damage control again! "Look Stelle it isn't going to be that bad I promise! Just a couple of quick scans, and some reflex testing maybe. He might ask you some questions or whatever after that and then you are done! Easy!"

She received no actual reply for all of that. Yup this whole checkup thing was going to be a pain in her aft.

* * *

><p>A week later after she was given a clean bill of health, she was conversely given a mission by her dad. This mission consisted of her tracking down the other hybrids and dragging them to the med bay for their checkups. At least he had been able to get Sides and Sunny to assist her.<p>

So she was taken off of medical leave and placed on immediate duty. Because this was going to take a lot of time to track the hybrids down and drag them back. She decided to do the easiest first by tracking down Miata in the rec room.

In truth she wasn't sure about what this encounter would be like seeing as how she had barely spoken to her old friend since she had come here. Honestly it was bothering her to be so close to her and not talk to her. But her spark was still hurting, and it probably would until she was given a reason as to why Miata had done what she had done. Just one reason that sounded legit. One reason!

But for now she had a mission, and the loud pede steps of Sunny following her, and the gentle gliding sound of Sides wheels pushing against the ground comforted her. If worse came to worse she could have them block escapes while she wrestled the others to the floor and knocked them out. Yeah that sounded...sound.

She entered the rec room and walked over to one of the smaller tables that the human soldiers sat at, where Miata was sitting at now.

Her blonde head snapped up upon hearing her approach. Light blue eyes widened in surprise before trailing off to the side in guilt. "Hey Lily."

For a moment she just stood there staring at her unsure of whether she wanted to just tell her to go to the med bay, or if she wanted to try and work it all out. It had been a long time ago...and she was over Demetri now. So in truth what was there to really be mad over? With a sigh she sat down across from Miata. "Why did you do it Mita? That's all I want to know. I don't even care about him anymore, but I still need to know."

From the corner of her eye she saw her mechs back off to give them some space. They were still close enough to hear however; obviously they wanted to know too.

Miata looked up at her tiredly, guilty, worn. She looked like she was a million years old and not eight hundred. "I...ever since I was little I had feelings for Demetri. But when you two started courting I suppressed them so as not to cause problems for you. I knew that you didn't know about how I felt about him; if you had you would never have accepted his suit."

She nodded once, feeling guilty herself. If only she had been paying more attention to Miata she would have known about how she felt for Demetri. And if she had known she would never have accepted him.

"I never wanted him to come between us Lily. Never. But he found out about...how I felt about him. I don't know how. After that he started spending more time with me while you were gone. I was confused at first, but at the time I didn't know that he knew! I just thought that we were spending time together as friends."

Miata tucked her hair behind her ear, a nervous habit of hers. "Then he started acting weird Lily. He started bringing high grade when he came to hang out with me. We'd drink and talk...but sometimes he would touch me in ways that weren't really appropriate. I pushed him off when he did that but he only became more insistent." She started twisting her hair between her fingers, another nervous habit, one that they both shared. "And then one day he came again with high grade. We drank it and he started up with touching me again... I asked him why he kept doing that and he told me that you weren't satisfying him."

Disgust coursed through her. She was glad that she had left him!

"The next thing that I knew we were on the bed...and my clothes were gone. We were having sex...I, and my body was so into it from all the teasing he had been doing that it never even crossed my mind to push him away. So I didn't..." Angry tears welled up in those light blue eyes and spilled over her cheeks. "After you left I barely even spoke to him for a few months. I was just so angry at him for taking advantage like he did."

"But...? I know that you two had a brief relationship? What brought that on?"

If possible Miata looked even more ashamed. Heaving a heavy sigh she buried her face into her hands and slumped down in defeat. "It was roughly a year after you had disappeared...when he came to me and told me that the reason that he cheated on you was because he had feelings for me. And I...I wanted to believe him. It never occurred to me that he was using me for sex. But he was. We were together for a few years but it never felt real you know? How could it have? Our entire relationship was built on lies and deceit. And then he breaks up with me and says that it was all a lie, that he never even cared about me like that, that I was just a quick fuck. I hated him for that...sometimes I still do."

Yeah and she could see why. Demetri was even worse than she had ever thought that he was. He was a real player, lying to get what he wanted. At least her twins had never, ever once lied about loving somebot to get into her port. They could be forgiven, Demetri could not. And maybe Miata could be forgiven as well... Yeah she was tired of being mad at her. "Mita? Look at me."

Those blue eyes drifted up to hers again hesitantly.

"I forgive you."

A soft gasp escaped from Miata's mouth as she covered it with her hand. "R-Really? But I...and he! We-!"

She held up a hand to silence her. "No. I said that I forgive you. You were as much a victim in this as I was Mita. I will not continue placing blame on you for what he did."

Miata suddenly lunged across the table and tackled them both to the floor where they flipped over each other a couple of times before settling with her pinned beneath the blonde. Who decided to promptly start crying and wailing that she was sorry, and that she had missed her so much, and that Demetri was a piece of shit user who deserved to have his aft beaten half to death.

So she found herself pinned, AGAIN, by a crying woman. Yeah her life was fragging awesome! Sighing, she awkwardly rubbed Miata's back up and down the entire expanse working out the knots and tension. While she was doing that she sent out waves of comfort and calm to combat Miata's sparkbroken state.

It was a slow process, mainly due to the sheer level of emotion that the blonde was feeling. For every little bit of progress she made, Miata seemed to almost instantly work herself up all over again in the space of an astrosecond.

It took her an entire three breems to calm her down, and by that time she was sore from laying pinned to the hard concrete for so long. "Better?" she asked when the cries had died into sniffles.

_Sniffle...sniffle..._ "Yeah."

"Good. Can you let me up now?"

An embarrassed blush erupted across Miata's cheeks as she hastily scrambled off of her and held out a hand to help her up. "Sorry Lily."

She dusted herself off and grinned wryly. "No it's cool Mita. However I did have a reason for coming here to find you. My dad wants all of us in the med bay for our first monthly checkup. I have been given strict orders to use force to get you there if I have to." Her voice came out with a threatening edge at the last bit.

Miata held her hands up in surrender. "No need for that Lily. I'll go as long as you come with me."

"Ok. Come on let's go before my dad goes on a rampage or something." Miata followed her without a complaint.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Sideswipe was a very laid back mech who was not prone to losing his temper nearly as often as his brother. But this task was trying his patience like nothing had ever tried him before.

Rounding the hybrids up had gone by relatively easy in Miata, and Estellise's cases. However they could not for the life of them track down the twins. Lil could find them easily enough, but the two of them seemed to sense it whenever they got close enough, because they would immediately take off running in a different direction. The worst part was that they never ever took refuge in a place that was blocked off or had no escape paths. A few times they had even gone through the vents to get away.

It was starting to get annoying since they not only had to find them, but they had to sit through the exam with them too. At this rate it was looking to be a long drawn out ordeal that even Lil was getting fed up with.

Their femme stood tapping her foot against the floor just opposite of another vent that was torn open. "Those two are so going to get it," she muttered darkly while cocking her head to the side in an adorable manner. "Hmm let's split up since this vent only has three possible exits for them to get out of. Sides go left into the main hangar, and Sunny take the vent nearest to the med bay while I stay here."

Sunny gave him a look before turning and stalking off seething with irritation.

With a sigh he too went to do as she had instructed by making his way to the main hangar. Such a waste to his day...he mused as he skated briskly down the hallway. Lil's voice came over the public comm link from her newly repaired gauntlet and comm system.

_'Ok Sides they are going to come back here most likely so just block off the vent with your servos so that they can't get out. The same goes for you Sunny.'_

_'Right,'_ they both chorused simultaneously.

By that point he slid into the hangar and made a beeline for the vent that Lil had instructed, bypassing Ironhide, Jazz, and Optimus on the way. When they all gave him a strange look for pressing himself against the vent he just scowled. "Demon sisters."

"Ahhh..." The three mechs nodded in understanding.

_'They're coming back my way. Stay where you are okay?'_ came over the comm link a second later.

_'Ok.'_

_'Ok Red gotcha.'_

Roughly three kilks later the sound of a loud commotion came over the comm link. _'OH PIT NO! TAKE THAT ANNIE! YOU ARE GETTING YOUR FRAGGING PHYSICAL! GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR JEZZ! YEAH THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PISS ME OFF!'_ The yelling was accentuated by small grunts, and loud screams from what sounded like Annie.

_'NOOOOOO DOCTORS!'_ Annie screamed a second later before her voice roughly cut off.

A klik later Lil's voice came back through the link. _'Got em.'_

**'Finally!'** Sunny sighed in exasperation over the bond.

The two of them made their way back towards the place that they had left Lil, and when they got there the sight of both twins hog tied with titanium rope greeted them. He snorted once and picked both femmes up gently so that he could carry them to the med bay.

Sunny picked Lil up and carried her on his shoulder the rest of the way.

If you were asking him Sunny just wanted to be a cuddlewhore with her for a little bit. A sharp prodding smugness slammed into him over their sparkbond making him grit his denta in aggravation. His patience was not at all up for this after the day that he had.

They arrived at the med bay quickly and made their way inside, freezing when they saw Demetri sitting on a berth while First Aid did his reflexes. He growled and dropped the two femmes carefully onto a berth near Ratchet, all while he was glaring and growling at the other mech.

Sunny's growls matched his as he clutched Lil to his chassis protectively.

First Aid turned to look at them once before he stood and typed something into his datapad. "Ok Demetri you are in perfect health. Feel free to go now."

The black mech hopped off the berth and stomped over passed Sunny who was looking like he just wanted to kill something, or somebot. Primarily Demetri because they hated him. He didn't even look perturbed or bothered as he passed by. In fact he had the ball bearings to look at Lil and shutter one of his optics in a wink.

Ratchet had to grab him to keep him from going after the slagging glitchhelm of a mech, and First Aid had to block the door to keep Sunny from going after him as well. The thundering roars echoing from their chassis bounced off of the walls of the room without fail, warning the other mech that he would not get off with making any sort of suggestive act like that again. Energon would be shed...

"Knock it off you fraghelms! First Aid come and administer the twin's physicals while I tend to my sparkling."

First Aid nodded once and moved to untie the twin's bindings.

"I would not do that First Aid...they will run," Lil warned him after Sunny had sat her on her own medical berth.

"Ok."

With a sigh Lil laid back and spread her arms out while giving her creator an exasperated look. "Scan away dad! Poke! Prod! But don't poke me with any needles!"

Ratchet scowled at her before scanning her with his optics thoroughly. While he was doing that he started asking her questions. "Have you been feeling any unusual pain? Any strange sensations?"

"No. I feel fine."

"No pain in your spark or abdomen?" Ratchet pressed as he switched to a different scan to look over her circuitry network.

"No," she answered in a bored manner.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes dad I'm sure."

He snickered when Lil shot her dad 'the look'. Somebot had woken up on the wrong side of the berth this morning! Oh wait...he scowled to himself, he had woken up on the wrong side of the berth too.

"Ok sit up so that I can check your reflexes."

The rest of the checkup went by relatively quickly. Her reflexes checked out, her scans all came back normal, and Ratchet gave her a clean bill of health. Again.

"You can take her and go now," Ratchet instructed them without taking his optics off of Lil's datapad file. "Just make sure that she eats something...her Energon levels are low."

"Right Hatchet. Come on sweetspark let's get you something to eat!" He grabbed her from the berth and carried her from the room. Slag was he glad to be out of the med bay! At least out in the hallway there were places you could go if Ratchet started throwing wrenches.

"So where the slag are we going to feed her?" Sunny muttered as they made their way down the hall towards the hangar.

"I have some stuff in the fridge in my room. Let's just go there okay?" Lil suggested.

For a moment he contemplated the dangers of entering Ratchet's quarters, with Ratchet absent, with his sparkling, thus being alone in his quarters with his sparkling. Trepidation was not even remotely what he was feeling. He was feeling downright nervous, trepidation was an understatement.

Still they veered off in that direction anyways.

When they entered the living quarters he actually looked around for any surprise traps, or Ratchet waiting with a wrench poised to offline them from stasis shock or something. Only when he was sure that there was no imminent offlining coming did he finally make his way inside.

Lil giggled at him and patted his face plates softly. "Relax Sides! My dad isn't going to be coming back for at least a half a joor."

"Lil my sweetspark, I am not going to take any chances when it comes to Hatchet." His optics roamed over the room. Plain. Clean. Basic living quarters with a couch and low table across from a large flat screen TV. Storage room right off of that and a wash room right off of that. He made his way down the corridor towards the berth room, feeling Sunny sticking close. His twin was just as worried about a surprise attack as he was...

The berth room was simple, the only real strange part was the elevated living space that was Lil's. Other than that it was normal placement, berth against the wall on the right side of the room, a desk sat near the top of the berth stacked with datapads, a small couch sat propped against the wall opposite of the berth located under and several feet down from the elevated living quarters. Basic.

Crossing the room, he deposited Lil on her platform. She swiftly pulled a curtain around the side to block it off from prying optics. "Hold on for an astrosecond while I get dressed okay?" came lilting out from behind the curtain. A second curtain slid shut further in and the sound of cloth shuffling sounded a second later, followed by a curtain sliding open, then drawers opening and closing, followed by more shuffling.

After half a breem Lil slid the main separating curtain open a bit and gestured them in.

They shifted down, activated their holoforms, and made their way up the ladder into her room. By the time they got up there she was already bent over rifling through a small fridge near the foot of her berth. After a moment she pulled out a sandwich of some sort and plopped down on her berth to eat it.

While she was doing that he was busy looking around the space. It was quite large, though not as large as her other room had been. It was set up completely different as well since the last time he had seen it. Not that it really mattered. The only new addition besides the fridge were several posters lining the walls. Evanescence, Skillet, Amarathine, and several other bands that he didn't care to remember.

Shrugging he plopped down next to her and pulled her so that she was situated between his legs comfortably. "You know that I love you right?" he murmured into her ear.

She turned to him, sandwich still lodged between her teeth, and nodded.

Sunny snorted at her. "You look ridiculous like that babe," his twin deadpanned before he too, took a seat on her berth on her right side.

"Mmmmmphh oooouuuuu!" she mumbled.

He buried his face in her neck and kissed the skin firmly. The last week and a half had been hard on him, on all of them. "We thought that we lost you."

Sunny started kissing her on the other side of her neck. "What would we have done if he had forced you to bond with him?"

Her body shivered, tensing in what his olfactory senses could smell was arousal. She dropped her food to the floor and turned to him to capture his lips with hers. Harsh. She kissed him aggressively.

She pushed him down, him and Sunny, alternating between them almost desperately. In her attentions he could sense just how scared she really had been, how terrified she had been that she would never see them again. How revolted she was when she was told that she would be Megatron's bonded. Or maybe it was her empath powers pushing it at them? Whatever it was, they both responded just as fiercely.

All he wanted to do was sparkmerge, bond to her so that none of that could ever become a reality. And his control seemed to be slipping with every pass of her glossa over his or every nip they exchanged. His servos ran over her body in tandem with Sunny's, over her waist, thighs, and she didn't even stiffen due to her own desperation.

But she was pressing the limits of their far from perfect control... Neural nodes on fire with need, he pushed her back to arm's length. "Sweets unless you want to bond you need to stop. We don't have perfect control, and our mating, and interfacing programming is already stretched thin. Neither of us want to take you before you are ready."

He expected her to remove herself from on top of them. What he did not expect was for her to look contemplative all of a sudden...

What could she be thinking?

* * *

><p>Haha cliffhanger! R&amp;R please! Bonding next chapter or not? I really can't seem to decide when to do it and we're already twenty eight chapters in! Let me know please! MAKE UP MY MIND FOR ME!<p> 


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Haha so here is the bonding chapter! Lemon! Mature content! Readers have been warned! Lots of memories and stuff in this chapter! A chunk of it is actually just memories so you have been warned! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>Was she really ready for this? Did she fear interfacing if it was the twins? Last time they had been intimate together, while it was not true interfacing, she had felt no real fear. Arcee had been right and her body had surprised her. So was she ready?<p>

She thought over what had happened with the cons, almost becoming Megatron's bonded. Did she want to chance something like that when the loves of her life were laying right here willing and ready to bond her to them forever? No she was not. She loved them. They loved her. That was all that mattered.

Smiling softly she lifted her hands to her loose t-shirt and lifted it exposing her uncovered chest. She heard a strangled sound from Sides and giggled before balling her shirt up and shoving it over his optics so that he couldn't see. Leaning down between their heads, she released a teasing breath near both of their lobes. "I'm ready."

Sunny whose vision was not hindered snapped his optics in her direction. He studied her, really studied her for several long kliks before sighing in relief. "Primus! Finally!"

She was suddenly yanked off of Sides and placed on the bed between them so that Sunny could work off her pants. There was a small flash of fear but it wasn't enough to make her stop. It was fear of the past, but the past was just that, the past. It couldn't hurt her anymore. "Umm doesn't sparkmerging come first?"

Sunny paused and cursed. "Yeah. Yeah hold on babe."

Sides who was watching them suddenly flickered from existence, nanites returning to his alt mode as it shifted to bipedal mode. Sunny's form did the same thing, until both of their real forms were standing near the ladder of her bed.

Taking a deep breath, she made her way over and stepped onto Sides servo so that he could bring her to both of their chassis. They were standing close to one another, close enough that she could reach out with both arms and touch their sparks at the same time. A small trickle of excitement went through her! This was really going to happen.

"Our memories are going to be shared okay? Just relax and remember that we will not judge you sweetspark." As soon as Sides said that both of their chassis opened with a soft hiss. The light of their sparks were reflecting off of their shiny paint casting hues of red and gold around the room.

Her own spark thrummed loudly once, before rushing through her body lighting every nerve ending on fire, as it rose to the surface of her skin in a pale blue glow. She met both sets of their optics and held them as she reached out and placed her hands on their sparks melding theirs with hers. A dizzying wave of memories came to her. Her memories dragged to the surface.

* * *

><p><em>A little girl with red hair sat alone on a hill watching the other children play. No one wanted to play with her...she was lonely. Her brothers and sisters were too busy working on the farm to spend time with her. So she would sit watching others play. Because she was not allowed to play with the others.<em>

_She twisted her dirty red hair in her hands. Sheela had told her that girls were supposed to keep themselves pretty when they weren't working. But she liked to get dirty and play in the mud. Then Aine and Sheela would get mad at her because they had to give her a bath to clean all the mud off of her. She only did it so that they would pay attention to her._

_Several shadows fell over her then, making her look up at the other village children. She subconsciously shrunk back because no one ever paid attention to her unless they were going to hit her or tease her._

_"Look at her! The demon spawn!" one dirty blonde haired boy sneered at her._

_"I heard that she killed her mother!" another exclaimed, a girl with long red hair a few shades brighter than hers._

_Another boy, William, the headmaster's boy stepped forward and threw a rock at her. "You should never have even been born! That's what my dad says! You're lucky that he doesn't hang you!"_

_The others joined in and threw rocks at her while calling her names. She covered her head and buried her face into her knees so that the rocks didn't hit her face. How she wished that she were not a demon... She suddenly felt a swell of rage in her spark._

_The next memory was of two younglings racing through a dirty alleyway. One of them laughed as they ran obviously enjoying whatever game they were playing._

_The other however did not. His dirty face plates tilted down into a scowl as he raced after the other youngling. "Sides one of these cycles you are going to get us killed! Why did you even take that polishing rag?"_

_With a laugh jovial blue optics turned to look at what she now knew was Sunny. "Because I didn't have one!" Sides exclaimed._

_She could feel Sunny's exasperation quite clearly...and his amusement._

_The next memory was of her again. When she had first met Moondancer while being transferred to another holding facility. All that could be seen of this memory at first was the darkness of the bot's hold that she was in. Her breaths were leaving her in heavy pants. She was scared._

_There was a sudden commotion echoing through the hold. Memory Lilah curled further into herself and whimpered fearfully as the bot that she was riding in suddenly jolted and fell. Her small body went flying across the hold smacking into the far wall painfully. A loud panicked cry escaped her mouth when the bot's spark extinguished leaving her in total darkness._

_She continued to cry because she knew that someone was out there! Someone would hear her! Her arms and legs were tied to her body so that she could not move...she could not make it to the latch on her own. So she just cried loudly in the hopes that someone would hear her._

_A loud noise, metal being bent reached her ears then. The latch was pulled back completely exposing a sleek blue face. Moondancer._

_The blue femme, her danniluk, lifted her from the hold and broke her bindings while looking at her with complete stoicism. But she was completely spellbound from looking into those dark blue optics. So much sadness hiding just beneath the surface..._

_Her little feet hit the ground again gently. With one last look the blue femme went to leave her alone again. Without even thinking she approached her, making the femme stop and look at her stoically. She wrapped her arms around her pede not caring what would happen. All she knew was that this bot was sad and she needed someone to make her feel better. No one had ever done it for her, so she was going to give it in return anyways._

_"You must have hit your helm child," the femme murmured in false amusement._

_The next thing she knew her body was sent flying from a kick of the pede she was hugging. She hit the ground letting out a small 'oof' noise when her body slammed into the dirt. It hurt but she wasn't going to let the sad femme get away from her. Without even giving herself time to really recover she jumped back up and followed after the femme's retreating back._

_The next memory was hers again. Memory Lilah was on the ground amidst a sea of frayed wires and spilled Energon. Moondancer was standing over her next to the body of a fallen bot holding out a servo to her. "Are you alright? Come on."_

_But all memory Lilah could do was stare at the break in her metal plating, through to the huge jagged scar lining her stomach. Her eyes filled with tears as sheer pain and agony filled her. She knew what that was like! She knew what it was like to be hurt! She just-_

_With a cry she flung herself at Moondancer's kneeling form hugging her stomach as best as she was able. Her mouth opened and closed as incomprehensible noises came out._

_"Lily?" Moondancer asked in concern._

_"Ahh d-d-doo-es i-it- hurt?" she finally managed to get out and looked up at Moondancer with tear filled eyes._

_Moondancer started in surprise. "You-you can talk?"_

_"It looks like it hurts you so much!" memory Lilah whimpered again._

_Moondancer's face plates shifted into a look of understanding. "These scars? I know that they look bad, but they don't hurt as bad as you might think. Don't be worried about me."_

_"Liar. You think that no one can see it. But I can! Your eyes! They look just like mine do! Like you're scared and alone and you hurt so bad you can't stand it but you don't want anyone to know it! I know! That was why!"_

_Moondancer fell silent mouth gaping in disbelief as her optics locked onto the small crying girl with a completely different kind of intensity. "Y-you were comforting me that day weren't you?" she finally said after several intense moments of silence. Memory Lilah didn't respond. "We have lost everything haven't we Lily? You could sense that I had suffered as you had, and you wanted to offer me what nobot else would offer you." Energon tears welled up in Moondancer's optics, her words were pained and soft. "Understanding...and unconditional love. A love that you have never known for yourself."_

_The blue femme suddenly embraced memory Lilah back. Angry tear tracks fell down her face plates as she cradled the breakable little girl like she was the most fragile thing in the universe._

_The twin's sadness wafted through their connection as the memory faded._

_The next memory was that of the twin's, Sunny specifically. Through the memory she could feel the horror and tension in his frame as he locked optics with a mech that had Sides pinned to the alleyway floor on his stomach plates, servo raised to rip his aft plating off._

_"Well look what we have here...another play thing," the large black and red mech sneered as he dropped Sides to the dirty ground._

_There was a sudden burst of sheer rage exploding from the very seams of the memory, tinting the very vision red. Sunny lunged at the larger mech with a roar of sheer rage tackling him. The two rolled to the ground exchanging punches, until Sunny flipped his body and pinned the larger mech down to the ground. He released a devastating punch to the mech's face plates denting it inward and causing the bastard's optics to offline. But he didn't stop there._

_Over and over again he slammed his servo into the larger mech's helm. The mech that had been trying to harm his twin! Red was still tainting his vision, rage still consuming him. How dare anybot try and rape his brother!_

_His rage made it impossible for him to stop at just punching the mech. He reared back and slammed his servos into the sensitive neck cables ripping and tearing them out with a primal sounding roar._

_He finally stopped once he was sure that the bastard was dead. Rolling off of the fallen mech he moved to return to Sides crumpled form, only to pause when an orange mech stepped into the lip of the alley. Sunny immediately tensed and placed himself in front of Sides in case the mech tried to attack him._

_The mech just held his servos up and grinned at him. "Relax youngling. I am not here to try and harm you." Red optics narrowed on the two younglings. "Your twin offlined that other mech further down the alleyway," he stated conversationally._

_She could feel youngling Sunny's surprise quite clearly as he turned and looked further down the alleyway where there was indeed a large green mech laying offlined. "So Sides went down with a fight," he stated with pride._

_"Indeed," the orange mech stated calmly. "I am Gigashot a gladiator in the pits here in Kaon."_

_Sunny stiffened. "The pits?"_

_Gigashot grinned. "Yeah the pits. You fight to the death and earn money. I think that you two would do well there."_

_Memory Sunny did not look convinced...but they did need Energon... His optics drifted over to Sides who was still laying dazed on the ground, before they drifted back over to Gigashot. "I'm in."_

_The next memory was the twin's again. It was a brief flash of a golden pede pinning another mech down on the Energon soaked ground. Memory Sunny ruthlessly slammed his sword down in the other mech's spark chamber offlining him swiftly while the crowd cheered loudly in his audio receptors._

_The next memory was just as brief as their last one. But it was no less intense._

_A large light blue servo was held out for her attached to a tall slender figure. Bright blue optics locked with her rich green. "Are you alright? Come on."_

_She scrambled up and moved towards the servo offered to her, only to freeze when she saw a blade coming at her helm from behind. Her mouth fell open in a shrill scream. "Moondancer!"_

_It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Those familiar blue optics widened and her light blue helm shot to the side in surprise. But it was too late. The sword cut through her neck joints with a sharp twang lopping her helm right off._

_She watched the only mother she knew beheaded. Nothing that she could do as her body fell to the floor lifelessly. Her mouth fell open as her helm landed right in front of her. She screamed. "MOMMY!"_

_Sheer anguish shot through her spark._

_More memories flashed through the forming bond. The twin's fighting in the pits, her being experimented on and raped. The twins released loud angry growls every time a memory of that came up. The twin's interfacing with other femmes, Limelight included, which she did not want to see. Her first time meeting the other hybrids. Escaping from the labs, being courted by Demetri. The twins once again released loud angry growls at both the fact that he was courting her and that he kept pushing her constantly for interface. The twins's first assignment with the Autobots. The twin's fighting alongside Optimus and the other bots, offlining cons with malicious glee. Her fighting against cons with just as much maliciousness. Back and forth the memories went between the three of them until the bond finally snapped completely into place with a mental pull._

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

Her breath escaped her in a shuddering sigh as the first brushes of pure love and adoration coursed over her from the new bond between all of them. She met their optics and sent back her own feelings of love and gratitude. **{Can you two hear me?}** she asked over their new bond.

**{Sure can sweetspark!}** Sides grinned at her, optics shining brighter than she had ever seen before.

**{It's weird having somebot else in my helm besides my idiot brother. But I like it.}** Sunny looked at her intently, or more specifically he was looking at her exposed chest. He channeled his lust and need into her. **{Now there's only one more step babe.}**

Another burst of lust and love wafted in from the other end of their bond. **{The interfacing part.}** Sides grinned, even wider this time if that were possible, and placed her on her platform. The two of them folded back into alt mode and activated their holoforms.

While they were scaling the ladder again she returned to her bed and quickly shrugged out of her pants and underwear before releasing her hair from the hair tie that she had it in. It pooled against her lower thighs in a silky curtain. Smiling nervously, she pulled her blankets down and quickly shrugged herself under them self-consciously.

Sunny popped up into her room first looking every bit like an eager puppy. Sides came up behind him still grinning at her, it only widened when he caught sight of her hiding under her covers and blushing. **{Somebot is shy! Don't worry sweets we will help you get over that!}**

The two of them suddenly shimmered for a moment until their clothes disappeared leaving them bare before her. Sides dimmed the lights down to a soft glow before the two of them climbed onto her bed making a bee line for her.

Her eyes watched every move, from their broad shoulders, toned six pack abs, strong firm legs, and absolutely perfectly handsome faces. She could already feel herself growing excited, a little scared still, but excited nonetheless. They used their new bond to filter out her slight fear, replacing it with their absolute adoration for her.

Together they slid under the lip of her covers until their naked bodies were pressing up beside hers. She squealed once and squirmed when their mech-hood's slid down her leg. Sides chuckled at her before looking at Sunny. **{So who is going first? Me or you?}**

Sunny scowled at him. **{You went first when we experimented last time so I get to go first this time.}**

With a pout Sides nodded.** {Sounds fair.}**

Her eyes widened in surprise when her golden mate slid over on top of her. He met her eyes and grinned devilishly at her. **{Hold onto something babe...}** Practically purring, he slithered down her body kissing the scarred and unblemished skin adoringly.

Her body arched seeking more of his touch after his head disappeared underneath the covers. He settled between her legs and breathed heavily over the sensitive flesh of her womanhood. She bit her lip and looked at Sides uncertainly, to which he just grinned before attacking her chest with love bites making her moan softly with want.

That soft moan turned into a full out scream when her legs were pried open completely and a long wet appendage flicked over her clit skillfully. She bucked her hips into the unfamiliar, yet amazingly pleasant sensation. Her left hand shot under the covers and grabbed Sunny's thick hair as she bucked into his mouth.

Screams started falling from her mouth with abandon when he started feasting on her like she was the finest Energon. His glossa flicked from her channel to her clit before circling it, then he would suck on it hard, before returning to her opening and penetrating it with his glossa again.

And Sides wasn't helping to keep her quiet at all either! His mouth was attached to her right breast suckling on the areola while his right servo tweaked the other one. She pitied anybot that only had one mate; she really did, because this was fragging heaven in the flesh. Both mechs rumbled in pleasure for the compliment.

Her hips bucked wildly from the vibrations into her channel and over her clit. She could feel the coil already building up in her abdomen...so much tighter than the last time. She whimpered, releasing Sunny's head temporarily, she guided Sides to straddle her and dragged his mouth up so that she could kiss him.

His glossa shot into her mouth stifling the loud moans that were still falling out. She guided his servos down to her chest and made him play with them while they kissed. He growled, the sound vibrating her entire body and sending pleasant jolts shooting straight into her core.

Whimpering her legs tightened around Sunny's head to hold him to her when the coil started giving way.

**{Let go babe. Overload for me.}** Sunny growled against her channel.

Her body arched with a shrill scream that was muffled by the kiss she was locked in. The coil snapped sending liquid fire, littered with electric jolts seeping throughout her entire body. Her eyes introverted, flashing with various colors as her nerves were lit on fire from the overwhelming pleasure of the overload she was locked in.

Another growl shook her from her apex as Sunny busily lapped all of it up, waves of sheer ecstasy radiating from him as well. His servos dug into her thighs to make her stop thrashing as he growled, and sucked up every last drop.

Her hips kept trying to buck regardless as the overload dragged out for another klik leaving her breathlessly panting into Sides mouth. She slumped back exhausted when the pleasure finally died down to a dull hum. Sweat was pooling at her brow.

**{Oh but we're not nearly done yet babe. The best part is still to come.}**

Sides vacated his place as Sunny slowly crawled back up her body, taking her thighs in his servos and spreading them when his interface rod came to rest at her entrance. He bent his head taking her lips in a kiss in which she could taste herself on his lips. Sweet. **{Are you ready babe?}**

**{Yes,}** she answered without hesitation.

With a low purring growl he rocked his hips forward penetrating her slowly. A small whimper of discomfort escaped her mouth when his large girth stretched her in ways that she didn't even know that she could be stretched. It did hurt but it also felt really good as well. She brought her hands to his shoulders and dug her nails into the firm skin there to distract herself from the pain.

Sunny grunted but she could sense that he liked the pain of having her nails buried in his skin. **{Relax babe. This will go by easier if you relax.}** Sheer pleasure was pulsing over their new sparkbond, along with a sense of patience.

Slowly she willed her body to relax more so as to make his entry easier. The pain was dulling down anyways so it was easier than she had been expecting, and soon enough he hit the bottom of her channel. She released the breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, it cutting off into a loud whimper when he drew his hips back and gently slammed his rod back into her. **{Oh...please...}** she whimpered over the bond.

**{Please what?}** Sunny growled as he repeated the motion and slammed his rod back into her several more times. His hips picked up the motion expertly, but he kept his pace slow and easy. **{Please what babe?}** he repeated with a louder growl.

Why did they always ask her these questions?! She didn't know what she wanted! **{Just...I don't know! Just do something!}**

Sudden pleasure erupted from her lower half when he started thrusting into her. Hard and fast. She arched her body and cried out his name in sheer ecstasy. It felt so fragging good! No better than good! It felt fragging phenomenal! Every time he left her body she felt tingly and empty, and whenever he slammed himself back into her she felt an intense jolt of that fiery pleasure from earlier.

It felt so fragging good that her hips started thrusting back against him hard and fast. Sunny groaned and slammed his mouth down on hers devouring her screams and cries with his mouth. He moaned into her mouth, hips driving harder into her. **{Babe you feel fragging amazing!}** he moaned over the bond.

But she was too far gone to really respond to it at this point under the onslaught of pleasure he was giving her. Her entire body felt like it was slowly being melted into a puddle of liquid heat, like she was being reduced to a boneless mass and oh Primus did it feel good!

The coil started building up quickly again. Stronger if that were even possible. She started thrashing her head back and forth forcing Sunny's lips off of hers, they quickly found purchase in her throat biting at her pulse point. She squealed, arching her hips hard into his at an angle that made him hit something buried deep inside of her that sent pleasure so intense through her that she momentarily saw stars.

He suddenly drew back onto his knees taking her legs into his servos and pulling her lower half up off of the bed. **{Overload again for me babe. I can feel it! You're so close again!}** He grunted and started pounding into her so hard that her bed started slamming against the wall.

She panted, thrashing against her bed wildly. Her abdomen was clenched so hard that it hurt but it wasn't giving! With her fisted hands she slammed them into the bed in anger. **{I can't!}** she wailed in frustration.

Sides suddenly placed his mouth at her ear and suckled the lobe into his mouth. **{Oh trust me sweets...you can. Overload for Sunny so that I can make you overload too. By the time we're done with you...}** He breathed over the heated flesh making her keen.** {You won't be able to walk for days.}**

A surge of pleasure so sharp shot up from her apex at that same exact moment making her body arch as a scream so loud escaped her mouth, that she would be surprised if her dad wouldn't hear it in the med bay. The coil in her abdomen snapped viciously, sending an even stronger overload coursing through her than the previous one that Sunny had given her. It was so intense that she was scared that she would faint from it as the breath was knocked out of her.

And to go and make matters even worse, er better, Sunny's hips suddenly jerked wildly against hers as he moaned loudly. Something hot and almost scalding shot into her channel making her clench so hard that it hurt. It made her golden mate roar in ecstasy as he slammed into her repeatedly.

She felt the bond between the two of them strengthen as their climaxes passed. His feelings came through even stronger than before, and hers were as clear as they possibly could be for him. And right now she could feel his exhaustion and sheer contentment radiating from him as he slumped against her chest.

Sides however, was overeager for his turn so he pushed Sunny off of her nearly shoving him off the bed in his scramble to get between her legs. **{Sorry sweets! But I need to strengthen my end of the bond! Think you can handle another round?}** he joked with a grin while he lined himself up with her entrance and pushed in without waiting for a response.

The second time was easier for her; he just seemed to slide in easily. Of course the combined overloads of her and Sunny could be to blame for that. But Sides didn't seem to be bothered by it. And she felt no less pleasure from him being in her, than she did when Sunny was in her.

Sides wasted no time in being gentle with her, he started pounding into her making her scream again. Driving hard and deep and hitting the perfect spots in her with no effort. He knew exactly what he was doing, just like his brother. But Sides liked it hard and fast, she could tell.

So she clung on for the ride and clutched at his shoulders to hold herself to his chest as he wreaked havoc on her body. His servos slid down over her entire form, tweaking at her chest, pulling at her clit. Sending unbelievable pleasure through her.

She cried out until her voice went hoarse, she bucked until her entire body hurt, she melted into the sensation of pleasant fire that was consuming her again. Every thrust of his hips was accentuated by a sharp twisting movement that had him hitting almost every single pleasure spot in her channel, every single time.

She felt another overload...er orgasm, building up fast. **{Please Sides! It feels too good!}**

**{Too good? Not possible sweetspark, but I think I need to prove that to you.}** With malicious pleasure her red mate sped his thrusts up so fast that his hips were smacking into hers loudly.

It hurt and she was sure that she would have bruises tomorrow. But her mind and body were quickly sucked into the overwhelming pleasure that he was subjecting her to. She turned to face him and slammed her mouth onto his moaning into him.

Her legs clamped down on his hips as the coil between her legs started giving way again. She whimpered loudly, hips gyrating wildly against his in a desperate race for that same ecstasy from earlier.

And Sides was more than willing to give it to her. Shifting her hips higher he suddenly started pounding into her even harder.

She suddenly broke from the kiss and cried out as her overload crashed through her in a massive wave. And just like last time, Sides suddenly jerked and followed right on her heels, snarling the whole time that he spilled his essence into her.

Just like with Sunny the bond that the two of them shared suddenly strengthened to equal proportions. She sent feelings of fulfillment and contentment to the two of them as her eyelids suddenly drooped in exhaustion. It didn't matter that Sides was still buried in her channel, or that she was holding him there with her legs. She was comfortable enough with him there...to fall asleep.

The last thing that she remembered seeing was Sides smiling down at her warmly...

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

Sunstreaker and his twin had done some very stupid things in their time. Like the time that they had pranked Ironhide by stuffing his cannons with junkion waste. But even that paled to the sheer stupidity of what they had done this time.

Because they had bonded to their femme, in her quarters, which were shared quarters with Ratchet the Hatchet. He would not take back the bonding aspect, however he did wish that he had used his processor and taken them back to their quarters.

**'Relax Sunny! All we have to do is move Lil back to our room and lock the door!'** Sides grinned impishly.

**'Yeah that will work! He has a medical override code for every room!'** he cursed and smacked himself on the forehelm. Of course Sides would not see the problem in this situation because he was still buried in their mate's warm body. So he was having a wonderful time while he was left to figure out damage control. Ratchet would be back soon...so they had to get the slag out of there! At the same time he didn't want to move his mate while she was recharging after their first merging and interface. It had probably tired her out!

**'We can carry her without waking her up I'm sure.'** Sides grinned wider and looked down at the femme that he was still propped up over as he had been for the last earth hour. **'It'll be a shame to pull out of her, but to avoid being killed by the Hatchet I will force myself to.'**

**'Shut up Sides.'** They did need to get the slag out of there though...maybe even camp out somewhere outside of the base for the night. No...cons could attack them, and with their new bonded mate they could not take any chances. Maybe Ratchet would be too tired when he got back to hunt them down? Probably not.

With a groan he rolled over off of the berth. **'We need to get her to our quarters Sides, best case scenario before Ratchet gets here. So let's go. Sit her down near the ladder and deactivate your holoform. We need to move.'** Without another word he deactivated his holoform in a flurry of nanites.

He came back online in his real form and shifted to bipedal mode an astrosecond or two before Sides did the same thing. Their mate was lying near the top of the ladder so he just reached out and grabbed her still naked form, before shifting it into his hold so that nobot could see her nudeness.

Together the two of them turned to make their way out of Ratchet's quarters. Only to freeze when Ratchet the Hatchet walked in at the same exact moment. "What are you two still doing here? Where is my-" Ratchet paused and sniffed the room deeply...no doubt catching the scent of transfluid, and femme fluids. His optics suddenly flashed dangerously when they landed on the two of them again. "What did you two fraghelms do to MY sparkling?"

**'Oh slag!'** Sides exclaimed over the bond.

**'Oh slag is right idiot!'** With a sigh he faced the CMO completely, most likely facing certain death. He could only hope that Ratchet would not kill them since they were bonded to his sparkling. "Umm well we bonded to Lilah...it was her idea," he explained lamely.

Ratchet's optic ridge twitched. "YOU WHAT?! YOU BONDED TO HER WITHOUT ASKING FOR MY PERMISSION?!" he roared, retrieving two wrenches from his subspace he launched them at both of them. "I WILL FRAGGING OFFLINE YOU!"

He grunted in pain when the wrench slammed into his helm. Ouch! That really fragging hurt! "Hey watch it! Our mate is in recharge in my hold!"

Ratchet twitched again before whirling on Sides and tackling him to the floor, where he promptly began strangling him. "HOW DARE YOU BOND TO HER WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?! DO YOU HAVE A FRAGGING DEATH WISH?! DO YOU WANT A SWIFT, NO NOT SWIFT! A PAINFUL AND SLOW OFFLINING?! I WILL TORTURE YOU TO THE BRINK OF DEATH REPEATEDLY UNTIL YOU BEG FOR DEATH!"

**'Sunny help!'** Sides choked out through their bond.

Sighing he retrieved Ratchet's wrench and smacked the CMO hard on the back of the helm with it. Ratchet turned to roar at him, leaving an opening for Sides to kick him off. In a flash Sides was on his pedes looking like a frightened cyber animal.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Together they turned and raced out of Ratchet's quarters as fast as they could. They could hear Ratchet chasing them still and it made them run even faster.

"GET BACK HERE YOU FRAGHELMS! I WILL WRENCH YOU INTO STASIS FOR THIS!" Another primal anger filled roar. "I WILL REWIRE YOU INTO TOASTERS! NO I WILL REWIRE YOU INTO A VIBRATOR BUT I WON'T EVER LET YOU ANYWHERE NEAR MY SPARKLING!"

He practically dove into the hallway outside of Ratchet's living quarters with Sides right beside him. Turning around he had a split astrosecond to react fast enough to press the locking mechanism on the door before Ratchet lunged at him. The door slammed shut as the CMO bounced off of it with a loud clang.

"I WILL MURDER YOU BOTH SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY! RUNNING WILL ONLY MAKE IT WORSE FOR YOU!"

Shuddering, he turned and ran down the corridor towards their room. **'When we get there we have to block the door with the berths to keep him from getting in!'**

**'Right! But what do we recharge on tonight then?'**

**'The floor-'** A sense of panic overwhelmed him when he heard the door to Ratchet's quarters give a loud screech of protest. Had-had he pried it open?! **'Forget about that Sides! Ratchet the Hatchet is out to get us! Hurry the frag up!'**

Both of them skidded around another corner and bolted for the door to their quarters. Sides keyed the code in and they both rushed into the room as soon as the door was open. He immediately split the two berths apart so that he could push one up against the door to the corridor, while Sides pushed the other one up against the door to their mate's old room.

Almost immediately there was pounding on the door to the corridor. "LET ME THE FRAG IN YOU SLAGGERS! I WILL OVERRIDE THE LOCKING SEQUENCE IF I HAVE TO!" Ratchet roared as he pounded furiously on the door.

"NO THANKS HATCHET! WE WANT TO LIVE THANKS!" Sides called back as he pushed more furniture against the doors. "Maybe we should have grabbed Lil's berth before we...no then Ratchet would have got in. Well slag..."

He moved to help his twin by piling his weapons table on top of the berth so that if Ratchet keyed the override code in the two of them could push the block against the door to prevent him from getting in.

While he was doing this he felt a faint fluttering in his hold. **{Sunny? What's going on?}** their new mate asked tiredly.

**{Sorry babe. Ratchet came back and found out about us bonding. He's uhhh not too happy about it. So we're hiding in our quarters, but we had to block the door to prevent him from getting in. Just relax babe. Go back to recharge.}**

There was a sense of exasperation and amusement emanating from her. **{Like I could recharge, er sleep with the loud racket you are all making. Give me a klik to talk to him over the bond okay?}**

At that moment the doors to their room beeped loudly as the override code was keyed in. They screeched in protest as the doors tried to slide open despite the fact that a few tons of metal were pressed against them. **{Babe he's going to murder us!}** he yelled in a panic!

Sides crossed the distance and pressed himself against the barricade that he had made. **{I agree with Sunny sweets! The Hatchet is going to annihilate us!}**

A flash of irritation was the response to that. **{Hold on handsome. I'm trying to talk him down. Give me a klik.}**

Normally he was not a mech that was easy to intimidate, but facing Hatchet was fragging terrifying! He hoped that she could talk him down before he killed them cause that would suck when they just claimed their spark mate... Dread filled him at the thought.

It consumed their bond, both his and Sides own. He felt Lilah give an exasperated push over the bond before it went silent for another few kliks. That was when he first noticed the smaller, less formed bond that was seething with rage. Their impromptu bond with Ratchet. Yup he was going to kill them.

It didn't seem to dull either over the next few kliks while they sat waiting patiently for their mate to save their afts. Because if she couldn't calm her opiluk down, then slag was about to go down.

The small bond shifted, emotions faltering. The anger didn't dull in the least; it was more like there was a grudging acceptance. **{Not that I'm happy that you went behind my back!}** Ratchet's voice suddenly growled at them.

Starting, he jumped in surprise and looked to Sides to see if he had heard it. His twin only nodded once looking every bit as surprised as was being communicated through the bond. **{Well it wasn't planned...Lil kind of started it.}**

**{Hey! Did not!}**

He ignored her. **{We umm should have asked first I know. But like I said it wasn't planned or anything.}** It was so disconcerting to have Ratchet in his helm! No it was even worse because they were bonded through Lilah! He hadn't expected it to be so strong that they could communicate like this! Sensing emotions yes, but not telepathic communication!

**{And that makes it okay? You should have asked me first! It's just common courtesy!}**

He winced but said nothing.

His twin however was not so inclined to shut the slag up. **{Umm well we can ask now...for pretenses?}**

Dead silence fell over the bond as various emotions washed over it. Lilah was amused if a bit mortified, Ratchet was slagged to the pit, and he was completely exasperated. **{Like that will do any good now Sides!}**

**{Hey it was worth a shot!}** his twin protested. **{It wasn't like we bonded because we wanted to make Ratchet angry! We bonded because we love Lil and she wanted to share her spark! So we forgot to ask Ratchet! It wasn't on purpose!}**

**{You still should have asked! Unless the sparkling if orphaned and has no Guardian of course!}**

**{Daddy they didn't mean to upset you. I...well it was my idea. After everything that happened with Megatron wanting to force me to bond with him, I just needed to go through with this. I never want to take a chance of being forced to be Megatron's bonded. That and I love Sides and Sunny more than anything, I want to be with them.}**

Ratchet was silent even though his emotions were still suffocating them. The CMO finally settled on resignation...albeit reluctantly. **{Fine. But I expect them to prepare their quarters so that they are comfortable for you, as well as cleaning up my quarters of the heady scent of interfacing. FIRST THING TOMORROW!}**

Lil sent back a silent acceptance, and gratitude.

**{I will return now. I expect to see you daily regardless of whether you are mated or not.}**

**{Ok dad. See you in the morning then.}**

There was no other reply before Ratchet's heavy pede steps could be heard wandering back down the hallway.

Both him and Sides shared a look before sighing in relief. That had been too close for comfort! They grinned simultaneously...at least they had gotten their mate's opiluk to accept the bond! That was something in itself!

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

The morning after the bonding was hectic for her. First thing after waking up nestled between her two mates she had taken in stock of her sore body and the various fluids still stuck to her thighs. With a sigh she had clambered down from the berth so that she could shower.

While she had been doing that in the attached bathroom in her old room, her mates had decided to join her. Needless to say she had been scared slagless when she turned around and both of them were there. Fraggers had dulled the bond so that they could sneak up on her!

After being subjected to another bought of passion in the shower, her mechs were proving to be insatiable, she was hurriedly dressed and ushered into THEIR new room. Shortly thereafter her dad had come to assist in making the room more livable for her.

He redid the twin's berth with a soft memory foam type material that was super comfortable! She had been forced to test it to make sure that it was to her liking before he was satisfied. Of course it passed her inspection with flying colors! Not only hers but her mates seemed to like it as well, even if the main concern flowing through their bond was that she was comfortable in their berth. They really were cute.

After that a ladder was attached to the end for her, all three had insisted that it was there as a precaution even if she could jump up and down easily. She had only protested once before Sunny had given her 'the look'. Of course she had promptly shut up.

Her things from her dad's quarters were mostly left there in case her mates were called out on missions and she wanted to stay with him. So instead her dad had brought an array of new things for her that he had procured that morning. A new fuzzy purple blanket, memory foam pillows, a new dresser, an assortment of new clothes that she had approved of course, and a vanity...not that she would really ever use it but hey!

And she had to do next to nothing save for pointing out where she wanted her new dresser. Other than that she sat comfortably on the large berth like a Princess.

She had them set the vanity up near the door next to her dress, so that they were out of the way of Sunny's workspace, even if her golden mate had protested that it was no bother to have her belongings closer to the berth. She had won the small argument, she always did.

After everything was set up she had been left to her own devices while Sides and Sunny cleaned up her previous living quarters. That had only taken roughly six breems or so before they were back grinning like maniacs.

Which is where she found herself right now. Confused, clueless, and tired. "Umm why are you two looking at me like that?" She asked nervously.

Sides grinned wider and skated over to their berth to pick her up. He twirled her around once and kissed her face softly. "We have to go and tell the other bots that we bonded!"

She stiffened, looking over at Sunny fearfully. He just nodded sternly making her groan in defeat. This was going to be so awkward!

Without another word she was carted from the room, all the way to the meeting hall where Optimus would meet with Galloway, or other important political representatives. And surprise! The bots were already all gathered; even the hybrids were there, Demetri included.

Both of her mates made their way to the front of the room next to her dad, and Optimus. The latter was smiling at her fondly when they stopped next to him. "Congratulations on your bonding Lilah."

"Thanks," she murmured awkwardly.

She was rewarded with a deep chuckle from the large mech, before he turned and held his servos up to gather everybot's attention. When the room fell silent, every set of optics riveted on her and the twins, Optimus spoke up. "We have gathered together to share some wonderful news. A new sparkbond has been formed between mates."

Immediate murmurs rose from those gathered. Most of the bots grinned save for Demetri, and Limelight who glared at her. The hybrids with the exception of Annie looked conflicted.

Optimus continued on anyways. "Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe have taken Lilah as their sparkmate. The former two have asked us to gather to formally bear witness to their union."

She saw Demetri turn and storm out without alerting anybot that he was leaving, besides Estelle who looked back at him in concern. A small sliver of guilt did pass through her spark, but she quickly pushed it away when her mechs looked at her in confusion. She shook her head once and smiled reassuringly at them telling them that it was ok.

"When a new bond is created it brings the bonded great joy, so let us all take this moment to remember the bonds that bind us all together."

When Optimus finished his speech almost every single bot besides Limelight came to congratulate their union. She received a playful nudge from Ironhide, a hug from Jazz, a soft congratulations from First Aid, a loud whoop from the dumb twins, a wink from Arcee, and another congrats from Wheeljack and Smokescreen.

The rest of the gathering went by relatively quickly with Ironhide and Optimus telling stories about their bonded sparkmates. Chromia sounded like a load of fun to her, especially if she could keep Ironhide on his tippy pedes. Elita-one sounded a lot like Estelle, at least to her. She still sounded cool though. Maybe one day she could meet them.

It was while Sunny and Sides were talking animatedly to Smokescreen that she made her getaway to talk to the other hybrids. "Hey guys," she greeted quietly as she approached them.

They all looked torn besides Annie who was grinning. She embraced her as soon as she was close enough and squealed in her ear. "Congrats Lilyboo! Those two make you so happy!"

"Thanks Annie." After another moment she released Annie from the hug and turned to face Estelle and the others. "I know that you aren't happy that I bonded to mechs Stelle but..." Her voice cut off when Estelle held up a hand to silence her.

It was obvious that she was torn, but even so Estelle offered her a small smile anyways. "I...this is your life Lily. If they make you happy then who are we to say anything about it?"

Her mouth fell open and closed a few times but no words came out. In that moment she was truly grateful for the effort and understanding that Estelle was forcing herself to show. Because she knew that it didn't come easy for her... "Thank you Estelle. They do make me happy. Incredibly so."

All of them, Miata, Jezz, Estelle, and Annie offered her warm smiles. "Then that is all that matters," Estelle spoke for the group.

They all pulled her into a tight group hug. "Congratulations Lily," all of them echoed together.

She grinned excitedly. Her forever after was starting today and she couldn't be happier. As long as she had her mates she would never be wanting for anything...she was sure of it.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! How did you like the bonding? Let me know!<p> 


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

So I have so many ideas left for this story that I don't even think that we're anywhere close to being done! I have quite a few plot ideas floating around in my helm, SO I might put a vote or two up on my profile link! If I do I will let you know so please vote! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Another lemon! Couldn't resist!

* * *

><p>It was dark...<p>

Her body was being pinned down but she could see no actual restraints holding her to the berth she was laying on.

Her body hurt...she could not remember anything. The inside of her head was completely empty.

All she knew was that she was hurting...she could not remember anything.

She thrashed trying to dislodge herself from her prison...in doing so she was able to lift her head slightly so that she could look down over her own body.

When she did she froze... Dark black metal and wires stared back at her. She-she was made of metal?! That no! That was not right! Even when she thought she knew nothing, she knew that this was wrong!

She looked around wildly sending lone red translucent wires flying around her prison. Her mouth fell open sending panicked chirps echoing around the room! Why couldn't she talk?! What was going on?!

This was wrong! So very wrong! And yet she knew that in some part of her it was right! That only served to make her more conflicted!

WHAT WAS HAPPENING?!

* * *

><p>Lilah jerked awake with a start, a shrill gasping shudder leaving her mouth. She looked around the room with wild frightened eyes as if she was still trying to escape from the nightmare that she had been locked in. Her racing spark settled down instantly when she took in her mates laying in deep recharge next to her.<p>

Well they were...now they were slowly coming online, probably from sensing her distress. Sunny onlined his optics first and rolled over onto his side to face her, dark blue optics looking tired yet alert. **{Babe? Are you okay? You were panicking a klik ago.}**

From the corner of her eye she saw Sides slowly come to. Oh great! Now she had interrupted their recharge when they were already running patrol so much as it was! **{I'm fine Sunny. Just a strange nightmare. Go back to recharge both of you.}**

The berth shook when Sides turned over to face her. **{Do you want to talk about it?}** He sent strong waves of love through their bond to soothe her. Love and patience so that she would know that they were not mad that she had woken them up.

She hesitated...blocking the dream from her head in the hopes that she would just forget it. But she couldn't forget it because it had almost been her reality! Up until this point she had not even thought about it really since her mates and dad had saved her from that fate. But now here she was thinking about it and having nightmares about it! How was she supposed to tell them that she had a nightmare about the cons turning her into a sparkling?!

At the same time they did deserve to know because they were her mates. And eventually they would see her dream no matter how much she blocked it from her mind...so she relented and let the block drop so that they could see her dream in detail. She felt them slide into her mind and watch the events replay with her.

Both of them expressed their anger when the sparkling form of her let out panicked chirps and wails that she did not understand. But they seemed to and their anger about it was quite prevalent. In fact anger was just about the only reaction that they had to her nightmare.

They pulled back out of her mind once the nightmare ended. Both looked perplexed and a little worried. Her spark jumped in distress when they did not immediately dismiss her dream as just that, a dream. **{Sunny? Sides? Why are you being so quiet?}** Even the bond was relatively quiet save for a faint echo of the emotions of anger still coursing through it. Their silence was scaring her.

The two of them turned to her sharply upon sensing her mounting fear. Sunny immediately sat up and scooped her up from the berth to cuddle her against his chassis. His digits started trailing down her back in large circles easing the tenseness from her muscles.

She slumped forward face pressing against his chassis tiredly. They seemed to have pushed the recent events to a different part of their processors for later concern, for right now they were both more worried about calming her down.

Sides came up on her left side cooing at her softly while he joined in with Sunny and started gently massaging any place that his twin wasn't already touching.

She was tired, but her body just did not want to relent and fall asleep again. Everything in her was fighting it, and the calming sensations that her mechs were sending her physically and through the bond. If she slept...she would have more nightmares she was sure of it.

"You have to recharge babe," Sunny murmured quietly.

She shook her head in the negative. No she did not want to go back to sleep. When you sleep you dream and she was tired of her dreams. So tired of the nightmares almost every night!

"Do you need us to help you relax sweetspark?" Sides purred suggestively in her ear.

Slowly she turned her head in his direction so that she could meet his heated optics. "Don't you two have patrol in the morning? Shouldn't you get your recharge?"

"We actually have tomorrow off, so whether we get enough recharge or not isn't relevant," Sunny answered before Sides could.

"And guess what?!" Sides suddenly perked up and grinned widely. "Ratchet upgraded our holoforms so that we could stay in bipedal mode and activate them! That means that we can frag you near our sparks!"

Both she and Sunny turned to give him a scathing look. "Really Sides? That's all that you could think to say to make her feel better? We can now frag you in our spark chamber?" Sunny muttered while he looked at his twin like he was a fragging idiot. Though...he did not feel repulsed by the idea that Sides had brought up. In fact he seemed quite interested in trying it.

A furious blush broke out across her face at the sheer perverseness of her twins. She honestly didn't think her body had what it takes to be locked in a sexual relationship with them for the rest of their very long lives. "You two are insatiable."

Sides grinned wider. "That we may be! But that doesn't answer my question sweets! Do you want to try fragging in our spark chambers?"

Did he really have to ask? Could he not sense the way that her body was reacting to their lust? Heat was already pooling between her legs and he wanted to ask her if she wanted to try it? "Sides just shut up and frag me already," she deadpanned making him grin wider.

The next thing she knew Sides had snatched her from Sunny's servos and placed her in his hold, next to his thrumming spark, and in plain view of his twin. So now she was a living porno for these two? And crap! Did she just say that without blocking the bond?

Feelings of amusement and lust spiked through her spark from both of them. She whimpered in need making the mech that she was laying in rumble loudly. His holoform suddenly materialized in front of her. Naked and ready. She sat up when he knelt next to her helping him remove her pajamas.

Sweat was already beading at her brow from excitement and the sheer heat radiating off of his spark. The sheer amount of sensations racing through her body were making her almost wild. It was probably from the twin's own need, but whatever the case when Sides tried to kneel between her legs she moved in a flash and had him pinned beneath her.

He stared up at her in surprise but let her do what she wanted.

She had never actually been in charge in the berth; her mates had always walked her through every encounter. So she was a little confused as to what she wanted, no what she needed to do. Acting on instinct she crawled down his body until she was eye level with his interface rod.

Transfluid was already beading at the head so she snaked her tongue out and licked it off. She was surprised both at the sweet taste, and at the way that Sides moaned softly and bucked his hips towards her. Using her hands she gently started stroking the base while she leaned forward and, keeping eye contact with his lustful optics, took as much as she could into her mouth.

Loud moans passed through the large metal frame housing them, and the holoform beneath her. Feeling encouraged she slowly started bobbing her head up and down while she stroked up with her hand to meet every downward bob of her head. What made this even hotter was the fact that Sunny was watching them...on a reflex she turned mid bob and met his heated optics with her own silently telling him that he was next, before she turned back to her task.

Sides servos fisted in her hair tugging at it as he moaned and writhed loudly. "Yeah sweetspark do it harder! Ahh you're so good with you glossa..." he panted out.

Speeding up she snaked one of her hands down to his ball bearings, er balls and started rolling them between her fingers making him arch and almost scream. He hit the back of her throat making her gag which turned her on even more making her moan loudly around the heated flesh. Which in turn made both of his forms release even louder moans.

She started shifting her hips to alleviate the building tension there. He twitched in her mouth and hardened to the point that it was almost hard to keep her ministrations up. She sped up her hands and mouth, eager to bring him to the overload. She started humming loud from the back of her throat at the same time that she deep throated him.

He arched with a loud cry hips jerking wildly into her mouth as he sprayed transfluid down her throat. She swallowed as much as she could while suckling him to extract every drop.

She released him with a pop when he slumped back down against the hold and licked the stray transfluid from her lips while he watched. "Umm was that okay?" she asked nervously. It had been her first time doing something like that after all.

Sides held his servos out to her looking incredulous. "Okay? Sweets that was fragging amazing!" He grinned when she slid her hand into his and let him pull her down beside him.

In a flash he was over the top of her with her legs spread completely open and his rod pressed against her entrance. Chest heaving, she met his optics shyly and nodded to his unspoken request for entry. She gasped loudly when he thrust into her in the space of an astrosecond. Her body seemed to clench around him to keep him from leaving her body and Primus did it feel good having him inside of her.

He grinned boyishly at her and thrust his hips several times in quick succession. "I'm glad that you like it when I spike you so much sweets...cause it sure feels amazing to be spiking you." Winking flirtatiously at her he started thrusting into her at a steady pace.

Moaning she arched her back and thrust her hips back against his feeling his girth sliding up against the incredibly sensitive flesh of her channel. She pulled his face to hers and forced her glossa into his mouth at the same time that she reached out with her spark coating her skin and touched his own spark.

The results were instantaneous. Both mech and holoform cried out, the latter jerking harshly into her as he reared back and pounded into her.

She arched and cried out as well when the sensations suddenly picked up in intensity. It was like somebot had zapped her with a thousand bolts of electricity, but not the bad kind! Her channel clenched around him almost reflexively as the coil built up in her stomach painfully. She kept her spark pressed against his firmly as he rode her.

Using her free hand she directed his head down to her chest. "Suck on them!" she commanded in a heated growl.

With a soft moan he enveloped her right bud sucking hard on it, making her moan in a wanton manner. He used his free servo to tweak whatever bud he wasn't loving with his glossa, switching back and forth every few kliks, never missing a beat in his thrusts.

She felt her overload building fast. Painfully. Arching she slammed her hips up and sent a surge of pulse energy into Sides own spark making him almost shriek in ecstasy. His rod scraped the top of her channel pressing against a super sensitive pleasure spot there. And when his spark surged back at her she lost it! Falling over the edge and screaming out her orgasm for anybot to hear.

Sides moaned loudly hips speeding up in response as he fragged her through her overload drawing the sensations out, before he spilled inside of her. He bit down on her chest and snarled as his hips jerked into her several times, transfluid filling her channel with its heat.

Her hand fell from his spark as her own spark receded...she sighed in contentment and stroked the mussy black hair tickling her chin. "Can I ask you something before Sunny steals me Sides?"

Her red mate looked up at her in a satisfied manner. "Yeah sweets ask away."

"Does interfacing like this feel anywhere near as good as it does in your real form?" For some reason it had bothered her not to know whether or not their love making was really as satisfying for them as it was for her. Holoforms were not their true bodies after all.

He looked at her in surprise and propped himself up on his elbows. "Yeah it does. Don't be worried that we aren't satisfied love. We could never be unsatisfied with you."

Smiling softly she leaned up and kissed him briefly before a sense of impatience made itself known from Sunny. "Mmm Sunny wants his turn Sides. Best not to keep him waiting huh?"

Amusement and a little exasperation coursed through him into her. "No we should definitely not go for another round just to make him wait," he murmured against her lips before releasing her.

Before she even had a chance to move she was being snatched from Sides hold by Sunny, and deposited in his hold next to his spark. She had barely even touched the soft padded floor of his hold when his holoform appeared before her in all of its golden haired glory. Just as naked as she was too.

And fully erect. Sunny smirked at her as he offered her kneeling form his rod. Taking his silent request, she had promised him after all, she leaned up and slowly took him into her mouth. Well as much as she was able, and what she could not fit she grabbed in her hands and stroked.

She bobbed her head up and down sucking hard at the tip because she remembered that being one of Sunny's pleasure spots. Her mate groaned and fisted her hair in his hands to help guide her faster. She moaned and rubbed her sticky thighs together to alleviate the heat building up inside of her. Who would have ever thought that she would get so turned on by sucking her mates off?

One of her hands snaked down to his balls and palmed the soft yet firm skin. She rolled them between her fingers and simultaneously stroked his shaft faster as she sucked hard on the tip. Small beads of transfluid dripped into her mouth for her efforts.

He was watching her heatedly, moaning and thrusting his hips into her mouth. It made something in her clench painfully. Whimpering she squeezed him hard and bit down on the head just under his pleasure spot. He cried out in surprise and spilled his transfluid down her throat without any sort of warning.

It surprised her as well but she didn't hesitate to swallow every drop of the sweet fluid moaning softly as she did so. She sucked on him briefly to make sure that she got every last drop before she released him with a soft pop. Using her fingers she gathered the transfluid that had escaped and brought it back to her mouth to suck it off.

While she was doing that Sunny laid down right in front of her and tugged on her arm. "Get on top of me babe."

Surprise made her hesitate for just a half of an astrosecond, before she hesitantly climbed on top of his stomach. This was new for her, to be in the dominating position during interfacing... She splayed her hands across his chest and waited patiently for him to tell her what to do.

His servos found her waist and guided her up over his rod while his optics held hers. "Ride me," he demanded as he brought her down over his rod and made her penetrate herself with it.

She squealed and squirmed as he filled her in this new position. It felt so strange to her to be upright and spiked! Add that to the fact that she had absolutely no idea what way to move and she froze up. "Ummm how? I don't know what I'm supposed to do," she murmured in embarrassment.

"Like this babe," he guided her up until only his tip was still buried in her, then quickly brought her back down on him hard.

Her head fell forward as pleasure so intense raced through her she thought she might faint. Moaning softly she dug her nails into his chest and repeated the motion, this time without his help. His own soft moan met her ears when she thrust herself down on him.

"Just like that babe."

Biting her lip she started thrusting her hips up and down using her hands to keep herself steady. Primus it felt so good! He was hitting so much deeper and at angles that their normal position just couldn't hit! It was making her see stars all over again.

She moaned hips jerking forward mid thrust so that she was grinding in a circular motion while she thrust up and down. Both she and Sunny moaned loudly while she quickly started moving her hips faster while gyrating.

The only thing that she did not like about this position was that she could not kiss him. Of course there were ways to rectify that... Leaning down she pressed her chest against his and started thrusting her body up and down while she slammed her lips down on his.

He moaned into her mouth and used his servos to knead her breasts while their glossas clashed together.

Smiling into the kiss she reached out towards his spark and channeled her spark into her hand and touched it.

Just like with Sides the mech and holoform both released shuddering moans as a jolt of electricity went through them. Moaning softly she kept constant contact with it as she started riding him hard. She may not be experienced but she would not let that stop her from pleasuring her mate. Either of them.

Sunny shuddered, moaning loudly into her mouth as her hips sped up. He separated from her mouth and groaned loudly. "Oh yeah babe! You're so fragging hot! I want to pin you to my hold on your stomach and frag you senseless!"

She shuddered when he filled her mind with those very images, expressing how he saw her moaning and writhing very clearly. Moaning again she forced his head down to her chest like she had done to Sides. "Later. For now be a good little mech and suck them!"

With a primal growl he attacked her buds with hard licks and sucks, sharp stinging love bites.

Arching her back she cried out as the coil in her abdomen started to give way. Her vision flashed and she just barely had the sense of mind to send a pulse of her power into Sunny's spark before she fell over the edge.

He cried out, both forms, and sent his own pulse back making her arch and scream as her overload tore through her. Her hips picked up in speed and rammed hard against his rod as she rode out her overload.

Sunny suddenly stiffened and twitched before jerking violently, hips arching clean off of the hold floor as he roared and spilled inside of her.

She would have been sent sprawling had he not caught her in fact. Instead she settled for slumping against his chest in exhaustion as he filled her with his heated transfluid.

As soon as his climax passed she dropped her hand from his spark and slumped against him. "Was that-" He cut her off before she could even voice her question.

"It was amazing babe." His servos found her hair and started stroking it languidly. "I love you Red."

"Mmm I love you too Sunny. And Sides..." she murmured as her eyelids dropped in exhaustion. "I love Sides too."

That was the last thing that she remembered before she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Several hours later Sideswipe roused from recharge feeling completely satisfied and at ease. Today was going to be a fragging great day he could just feel it. After an interface like the one that they had partaken in roughly a joor ago how could it not be a good day?

Shifting he stretched his stiff plates from laying in the same position for so long and turned onto his side so that he was facing his mate.

Her red hair was mussed and messy from their interfacing. She was mostly covered by her warm purple blanket, but one of her legs was peeking out from underneath it and it was coated in transfluid.

Grinning widely he pulled the blanket over her exposed leg so that she would not get cold. He scooted closer to her, careful not to rock the berth and wake Sunny who was still in recharge. He pulled her into his chassis and caressed her like she was fragile and made of glass.

Primus he loved her with all of his shared spark. Truthfully he was sure that he had since they had met even if he hadn't realized it. And now she was theirs forever. Their sparks would forever remain linked to one another even after their lives faded. That thought caused him to grin stupidly again. She was theirs! Theirs and no bot else's!

He would have giggled like a young femme if his twin had not onlined his optics and turned in his direction.

Sunny scowled and shifted so that his chassis was pressed up against Lil's back. "Sides why are you sitting here looking like a stupid scraplet?"

Grinning wider, he ran his servos over the small hybrid femme that was their mate. "Because! I just really realized that Lil was ours! I mean I knew but now I really know! No bot can ever take her away from us! They can never bond to her! She can only be bonded to us and Ratchet, or our sparklings if we have them. It made me happy to think about is all."

His twin grunted though his optics did drift down to their mate and soften. "It's nice to think about isn't it? To always have a beautiful mate to come home to? Never again will we be alone."

"Nope. Never again," he agreed, feeling overwhelmed with love for the small femme that held their spark. "Maybe one day soon we'll have sparklings to come home to huh?" He had to admit that the thought did not displease him at all.

"Maybe. Before we met her I never even wanted to be a mech creator, and now I have to say that having sparklings with her would not be bad at all."

No definitely not bad. Seeing her swell and house their sparklings inside of her gestation chamber. Feeling them kick under their servos. Seeing them be born. Naming them. Raising them. No definitely not bad at all. "I want a femling!" He grinned. While Sunny had never really thought on being a creator he had, and he had always wanted a little femling to call his Princess.

Sunny was silent for a moment before relenting. "Me too. Though I would be happy with anything that she gave us." A small smile pulled at Sunny's mouth components as images of him holding a tiny femling in his servos flashed through his processor. Small and red with gold accents. Big wide green optics staring up at him...

He smiled at the image. Yes being a mech creator would not be bad at all. Especially if their sparkling was that cute! The question now was did they want to start trying for them already?

So far they had not allowed their genetic coding to come into play with their interfacing. Their overloads had been pure transfluid with no coding that could get her sparked. But now they had to assess whether or not they wanted to get her sparked and go from there.

And truthfully he wanted to. He wanted sparklings, both because he wanted to be a creator, and because Lil had lost so many sparklings before. She deserved to have sparklings of her own to love and care for. And if she wanted that he was going to give it to her.

Searching the bond he found that Sunny was of much the same opinion as he was. So they were both ready to become mech creators, the only thing left to do was to find out how Lil felt. They were newly mated so she might want to wait for a bit before trying. If she did that was ok, it wasn't like they were in a rush or anything. They had a very, VERY long life ahead of them.

A soft moan drew both of their attention back to the object of their affections and thoughts. Beautiful sage green optics slowly slid open and blinked tiredly at him. She snuggled into his chassis and pressed a small kiss to it. "Morning handsome."

"Good morning love," he greeted back quietly.

"Morning babe," Sunny greeted her as well.

"Morning stud," Lil yawned cutely and turned to lay on her back between them. She stretched languidly inadvertently drawing their optics to the large swell of her chest with the movement. Smiling, she turned to bat at the two of them playfully. "Perverts! Aren't you ever satisfied?"

"Nope," he responded popping the p and grinning at her. "We're mechs Lil we're never fully satisfied. We can frag all day long!"

She smiled dryly and sat up clutching her blanket to her chest as a shield. "I know. But what you forget is that this is my real body! You interface with me using holoforms which can be reset! Therefore when one holoform gets used up you just switch to another one! And your real forms aren't physically taxed when we interface anyways! Your mate however DOES get tired! And sore too!" Lil whined at the end of her little rant and rubbed her thighs over the blankets. "My poor thighs man..."

"Sorry sweetspark." Pursing his mouth components in contemplation he suddenly got a great idea. Grinning he hopped off of the berth and grabbed Lil up before carting her to the bathroom attached to her old room. Of course he had to shift down to holoform to get into it, luckily he could do that without having to shift to alt mode now!

He activated his holoform, his awareness switching over to the more flesh like representation of himself. Shifting he tested his new temporary body to make sure that everything was functioning right. Once he was sure that all was well, he stepped forward and swept Lil up from the floor carrying her into the bathroom and sitting her down on the toilet near the tub. "Wait an astro sweets and I'll run you a hot bath."

Turning the faucet on he adjusted the water so that it was hot like his mate liked her showers and baths. He added some bathing soap and salts to the water wincing at how strong the smell of vanilla was. He turned to his mates to help her into the bath at the same moment that Sunny came in; he passed the purple fuzzy blanket over to his twin as he helped Lil into the tub.

"Is there a reason that you're being so sweet this morning?" Lil sighed leaned back against the wall of the tub comfortably. She smiled at him warmly using a digit to caress his forearm which was propped up on the edge of the porcelain.

"Maybe," was his teasing response. "Or maybe I just wanted to treat my mate like a queen today." His optics landed on the strange spongy item that Lil used to clean herself with. Reaching out he grabbed it and wet it with soap and water before taking one of her legs into his servos and lifting it above the surface so that he could massage it with the sponge thing.

While he was doing that Sunny came over to the head of the tub and moved her hair to the side so that he could start gently massaging her shoulders.

Their mate relaxed completely against the tub sighing in contentment. "This is nice."

He grinned at her while he cleansed her body of the fluids coating her, briefly massaging the cleaned flesh after he was finished. Moving onto the other leg he repeated the treatment just as leisurely as the first time. "You deserve to have mates that lavish you with attention love. So just sit there and relax...you're sore remember?" he teased her.

She splashed him playfully optics shining with mirth. "Tease." Her voice cut off with a soft moan when his servo brought her sponge thing over her port. "Still teasing!"

"Oh? I think I'm just cleaning you." He slid the sponge over her slowly, teasingly, before he trailed it up her stomach and handed it off to Sunny. Once his servos were free he started giving her legs a thorough massage from the ankles to the tops of her thighs, working out all the tense muscles and kinks.

His optics followed Sunny's servos as they gently cleaned her stomach and chest. Each movement was slow and deliberate, he trailed up from her stomach dipping the sponge into the small little button above her abdomen, then he slowly dragged it further up and circled the swell of her breasts.

Lil moaned softly optics drifting up to Sunny's face. "I thought that you were trying to help me get over my soreness from last night! Not create a new situation that is going to result in even more soreness!" she admonished them in a breathy tone.

His twin smirked, easing the sponge over her delicate buds firmly. "We are babe. It isn't like we can help it that you want us so bad. Maybe you should learn some control?" he teased.

Lil turned back to him with a pout. "Sidesssss!" she whined and squirmed.

"Ye-es?" he drawled, fighting the urge to grin at her. Having her squirming around certainly was not helping any of their pressing matters in the least. Not that he was going to complain because he was a mech, and not just any mech but an insatiable mech. An insatiable bonded mech with only one outlet for his need in the form of the squirming femme writhing against his servos. "Love you aren't making this any better for yourself."

She hummed thoughtfully. "Oh? I think that I am making it better. You forget handsome, that I can see into your helm too!" Her optics flicked open and met his with a sharp teasing edge. "And I can feel how much you want me right now..."

He leaned in, she leaned in to meet him half way...her breath ghosted over his lips...and...when he went to close the distance she suddenly pulled back. Confusion overcame him for an astrosecond before he realized that she had just teased him. "Sweetspark!" he whined.

"Nope. No loving for you until my bath is over!"

"But we can do it in the bath! Clean up will be easier that way!" he protested earning himself a small glare from her.

She glared and raised an optic ridge. **{Get to it mister! This was your idea after all wasn't it? Now wash my hair!}**

Sulking like obedient petro puppies they moved to rinse her off, Sunny wet her hair and lathered it with her floral shampoo before rinsing it thoroughly. All while she was laying contented as could be against the tub now that she wasn't being molested. Sooo not fair!

**'Weren't we going to ask her about sparklings before we came in here?'**

He started in surprise and looked up at Sunny. His twin must have blocked Lil from the bond slightly so that he could ask because there was no outward display of surprise from her. **'Yeah we were but...we should do something special for her before we ask. How about we take her to the cliff and set up another picnic for her? She liked that the last time.'**

**'Yeah that sounds like a good idea. We can have Ratchet watch her while we set it up.'**

He grinned at Lil's relaxed form while she had her optics closed. **'Sounds like a plan. Just don't forget the spoons or whatever this time!'**

Sunny scowled at him. **'That was you!'**

He only grinned and shrugged. That whole bit could be argued about later! For now they had a whole romantic outing to plan! Luckily they were the masters of wooing femmes with beautiful gestures...only this time there was a purpose besides romance or interface behind it. Sparklings...he hoped that she would be agreeable to their suggestion.

* * *

><p>(Lily s POV)<p>

Rich sage green eyes watched the clock above the door ticking. Just two more kliks and she could get out of here and track her mates down!

After her bath time massage they had dropped her off at the med bay after stating that her dad needed her assistance for the day. He hadn't contacted her to ask but she figured that maybe he had been too busy to. So she had thought nothing of it and waved her mates off as they left.

She had been swamped after that. Skids and Mudflap had come in banged up and dented courtesy of Ironhide and his cannons. Shortly afterward Wheeljack had come into the med bay with a newly repaired Aednat for her to take home with her after her shift was over.

After that she had been forced to deal with an overly affectionate cybercat who had apparently missed her while she was being repaired. She was constantly being pushed while Aednat rubbed up against her, and sometimes her companion would knock her over when she jumped up and put her paws on her shoulders.

It made working hard. But she had missed her little Aednat so she took it all in stride. Her dad however did not handle having a cybercat traipsing around his med bay well at all. Several times he had threatened to throw a wrench at Aednat, until finally First Aid had to take her back to the twin's quarters and cage her to prevent her dad from damaging her all over again.

That was another thing that was weird! First Aid was there in the med bay and yet her mates and even her dad had insisted that she was needed that day! If she didn't know any better she would think that they just didn't want to spend time with her on their off days! Of course they sent reassurances through the bond that it was not like that, that her dad did need her, and that she did promise to spend time with him daily.

She pouted...that was true. And it hadn't been a particularly hard day, just busy! After Skids and Mudflap had left Prowl had been brought in by Jazz. Apparently her twins had made him glitch somehow so her dad had to repair him. So was her first introduction in how to use a manual reboot console to reboot a glitched bot. Her dad had wanted her to learn so that she could do that in the off case that he or First Aid were not there to do it themselves.

Jazz had of course made some smart aft comment that she should probably apologize in advance to his spark mate every day because there was a good chance that he would glitch every day because of her twins. She had flipped him the bird and went back to rebooting his mate.

It had been relatively easy, just plug the reboot usb cord into the port on the back of his helm and hit the reboot feature on the console. Easy! A sparkling could have done it!

After Prowl and Jazz left she had been forced to organize supplies for the rest of her time.

Completely boring! For the last three hours she had been sorting needles, medications, and sterile plating! She knew that it needed to be done but she was soooo ready to get out of here! Maybe go spar with Estelle or Miata.

She was so eager to get out that as soon as the clock struck seven o'clock she jumped up and practically leapt for the door. "Bye dad! Bye First Aid!" She waved a quick goodbye to the two mechs and rushed out the door.

Straight into a bright golden pede. She looked up in surprise to find both of her mates standing there watching her in amusement. She scowled and put her hands on her hips. "Where have you two been all day? They didn't even need my help in the med bay!"

Sides bent to pick her up with a wide grin on his face plates. "We were working on a surprise for you love."

Confusion coursed through her spark. They were working on something for her? Her entire body tensed in excitement just thinking about it!

"We're glad that you're excited babe cause we are too."

She said nothing else in response as they turned and made their way to the hangar. Her entire body was alight with excitement like a giddy little sparkling! And it only increased in intensity when they exited the base and shifted to alt mode, her seated safely inside of Sides cab.

They drove away from the base towards their special spot. She tried asking what they were doing, but neither of them would answer her. It got so bad that she started lightly kicking her feet against the seat er...Sides servo. She was practically convulsing with excitement!

And she could feel that they were excited too if a little bit nervous. She shrugged it off as them being nervous that she wouldn't like their surprise. Not that there was anything that they could do that would really displease her...save for getting her a pet tarantula or something... Eww spiders!

Unlike the last time that they had brought her to their spot Sides didn't dim his windows. So she had a good view of the picnic blanket and food set up in a similar manner to the last time that they were here. Only this time they used bright silver ribbons and gold lights to offset the silver. It still looked pretty.

The picnic blanket was in the same place, cushions and various food items spread out like before. From here she could see the wine and high grade in the center next to another cheesecake, chocolate this time. Her mouth was already watering.

The frame around her shifted as soon as they stopped next to the blanket until she found herself seated securely in her red mate's servo. He placed her on the blanket atop a plush cushion but did not shift to holoform like last time. Neither of them did.

That struck her as somewhat odd...but she forgot about it quickly when she was handed some cheesecake and wine mixed with high grade. It all tasted divine. Sweet. The high grade was mixed perfectly with the wine giving it a smoother flavor, even sweeter than the wine alone. It melded perfectly with the sweet dessert she had consumed.

She hadn't eaten that day save for breakfast so she practically inhaled it all in astroseconds. As soon as she was done eating however...things got a bit awkward. Because having two giant robot aliens who you were mated to staring at you without speaking was kind of weird. Especially when you couldn't tell what they were thinking because they had dulled their sparkbond down.

"Umm is there a reason that you blocked me out? And why are you staring at me like that?" she shifted nervously under their scrutiny.

Both of them shared a brief look and turned back to her. Sides reached for her and she immediately climbed onto his servo. He held her in between the two of them at face level. "Sweetspark I-Sunny and I wanted to know if you...wanted sparklings yet?"

She nearly choked due to the abrupt question. Nope she had definitely not been expecting that at all! After several moments of stunned silence she realized that they were still staring at her waiting for a response.

Her mind flashed back to her past briefly touching on each face of the sparklings that she had lost. All red optics, innocence, sparks that had been snuffed out too quickly for it to be fair. She knew that things would be different this time. Her sparkling's sires would not turn on them and mutilate them as the other mechs before had...

It was not that she had ever thought for an astrosecond that either of her mates would do that! It was just...most mechs did not want to rush into creatorhood. They had only been mated for a week! She had been expecting them to want more time to indulge in each other before sparking her.

But she did want sparklings...she did...and if they wanted them too... "Yes of course I want them," she breathed in a soft whisper. Smiling softly she spoke once more more firmly this time. "I do want them. If you two want them that is."

They both grinned identical grins. "Of course we do sweetspark! We wouldn't have prepared all this to ask you if we didn't!"

"Why would you think that we wouldn't?" Sunny asked her quietly.

She shook her head and met his optics. "It wasn't like that! I just wasn't expecting you to want them so fast! Most mechs that I have met don't want sparklings right away and well...we have only been mated for a week. I guess I thought that you would want to wait for a while before trying."

"Nope! Sunny and I want a femling!" Sides grinned at her wolfishly.

"A femling huh? Why? So you can be overprotective opiluks and chase away all the mechs chasing her?" she joked.

Both of them sobered and released loud warning growls. "NO MECHS!" they snarled at the same time.

She hid her laughter and inched forward on the servo she was perched on. Meeting both of her mate's optics she grinned seductively. "Well we don't have to even worry about that yet because you haven't sparked the spark yet. So get to it."

Sunny growled and snatched her from his twin's servo to deposit her in his hold where his holoform was already waiting for her.

She was pinned to the floor and stripped in astroseconds. A plus side to this whole sparkling drive? She got to interface with her mechs whenever she wanted, as much as she wanted. That definitely was a very welcomed idea even if she knew that her body would protest it afterwards.

But as Sunny leaned over her and prepared to spike her she figured that it was all worth it as long as she was able to hold her sparklings...their sparklings in her arms.

Hopefully she would be able to soon.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! To spark or not to spark! That is the question! Will I be a total glitch and make you wait? Or will I deliver adorable little sparklings in the foreseeable future lol! You will all have to wait and see!<p> 


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

So they are officially trying for sparklings lol! Still gonna be a few for that I think...unless I want to be evil which is completely possible. I put a poll up to help decide a mechling's name, if I make one, so check it and vote! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>Several weeks had gone by since they had started trying for a sparkling. So far nothing had happened. But she wasn't losing hope or becoming discouraged in the least. Sparking a sparkling could take time as she knew all too well from being sparked multiple times.<p>

Her twins however were not so patient about the whole ordeal. Sides hadn't stopped whining since they had gone to see Ratchet, where he had proclaimed her still unsparked. It was getting somewhat annoying to listen to him; however she could understand his frustration. They all wanted sparklings and fate was being a glitch about it.

On a better note new arrivals were supposed to be coming sometime in the next day or two! Three signatures from what she and the bot's sensors could tell. So everybot on base was excited for that! Even if they were cons that just meant that the more violent Autobots could tear apart whoever crashed. AKA Sides, Sunny, and Ironhide!

They were also going to take Miata, Annie, and Jezz on the retrieval mission! This would be their first mission with the Autobots! She knew that Annie was excited as pit! Of all of the hybrids save for her, Annie was the one that liked the bots the most. She had even struck up a very good friendship with Bluestreak...

She grinned on Sunny's shoulder while she watched him working on his painting. Oh yes they were definitely friends! If friends blushed and acted all shy and lovey dovey around each other. Well Bluestreak was the one that was doing that, and Annie was clueless but still... She was sure that Annie would come around and realize that Blue liked her. If Blue ever really realized it himself. Maybe she should talk to his brothers Prowl and Smokes and see if they could talk some sense into him? No let it happen in its own pace.

"Somebot is being troublesome," Sunny's deep sultry voice shook her body.

Grinning, she nodded and pressed a kiss to his audio receptor. "Mhmmm! Blue and Annie would make a good couple wouldn't they?" She watched him paint while she waited for a response.

For some reason Sunny had felt the need to paint her again, sitting underneath their special tree with the decorations from their confession strewn about. Flower petals were in her hair, soft white lilies standing out in extreme contrast against her blood red hair. She was staring up at the sky wistfully, eyes gleaming beautifully from the soft light of the moon reflecting off of them. He always made her look pretty in his paintings.

"I don't really care if they make a good couple," Sunny answered her quietly, tone dripping with disgust. Even the bond was channeling his disgust over even considering Blue with a femme, to her.

She blinked in surprise and smacked him playfully. "Everybot deserves to be happy Sunny...besides Megatron and my sire." He shot her a look from the corner of his optic making her giggle and smack him again. "I think Bluestreak likes her."

Sunny snorted and sat his paintbrush down so that he could look over his work. "Why? Because he blushes and stammers like an even bigger idiot when she's around?"

She frowned at him reproachfully. "Sunny be nice!"

He vented heavily in exasperation and turned to her fully, grabbing her off of his shoulder and settling her in his servos. Gentle digits started working down her back easing tense muscles and soothing several large kinks near her spine. "Fine. I'll be nice but only because you asked me to."

Her eyes narrowed on him when she sensed a small trickle of mischievousness wafting through the sparkbond. What she had found out since sparkbonding to her twins, was that Sunny was truly emotionless for the most part to other bots. But with her and Sides he was openly affectionate, well he had been even before they had bonded, but after establishing the sparkbond she had discovered that he was actually rather mischievous. Not as much as Sides was, but the behavior was there. He especially liked to tease her whenever he got the chance.

Like he was doing right now! A small smirk was pulling at his lips, dark azure optics were shining in a way that they did for nobot else.

"Suuuunnnnnyyyy! You're supposed to love me and have my back!" Crossing her arms across her chest she huffed and turned away from him with a pout. She sent every disgruntled feeling in her through the bond, letting him know in no uncertain terms that she was being serious, and that his teasing was not at all appreciated.

"I do love you babe."

Whirling on him she pointed a finger at him sternly. "Then help me out here! An honest opinion!"

Instead of doing that Sunny looked like he might become sick. His face twisted up into a horrible grimace of pure disgust. "Babe...please do not ask me for... Ok fine! They would be..." His mouth fell open and shut several times, a small choking gagging sound coming out of it. "ok..."

She grinned at him. "See? Was that so hard Sunnykins?" she teased him playfully.

He gagged louder tossing a glare her way. "Don't call me that!"

She opened her mouth to do the exact opposite when the door to their quarters slid open. They turned towards it at the same time that Sides came in, STILL pouting over earlier. "Hey love. Hey Sunnykins." He sulked all the way over to their berth and plopped down on it.

"Don't call me that!" Sunny snapped angrily.

"Hey Sides what do you think of Annie and Bluestreak?" she piped in before they could start arguing when Sides decided to tease Sunny with the nickname that he obviously hated. Scrambling up from Sunny's servo she leapt across the room onto the berth and climbed up on Sides lap.

Sides raised an optic ridge at her. "I like them. Why do you ask?"

With a groan she looked up at him pleadingly. "No! Not like that!" Gesturing wildly with her hands she pointed at the two of them and Sunny. "I mean as a couple! Blue likes her I can SOOO tell!" She grinned evilly clapping her hands once as she thought. "I am going to set them up."

Both of her mechs gave her confused feelings, Sides was slightly intrigued by the idea as well though. "But isn't Annie like...scared of mechs? Will she even give Bluestreak a chance if he even asked her?"

"Annie is like me, I'm sure that she will give him a chance. All we have to do is find out a way to make her notice that he likes her, because Annie is completely oblivious to most things. So first step is to-" She trailed off when her gauntlet communicator beeped loudly. Sighing she pressed the green button and spoke.

_'Yo!'_

A snort came through the line from Ironhide. _'Is that the way that you greet others?'_

Grinning she placed her mouth right at the speaker and yelled. _'NO! THIS IS HOW I GREET OTHER HIDSEY! WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO BRING AEDNAT TO SHOOT YOUR BUTT PLATES OFF AGAIN?'_ She made a static sound. _'OVER!'_

Sides laughed at her holding a servo out so that she could high five him. "Good one sweetspark."

She giggled softly just before Ironhide's voice came back through the line. _'Look Optimus needs you in the main hangar ASAP. Apparently Galloway wants to talk to you. Not sure what it's about but I wouldn't keep him waiting.'_

_'Ok the twins and I will-'_

_'He wants you to come alone. Only you and Optimus will be there talking to him.'_

The angry tone of Ironhide's voice scared her even if she knew that it was not directed at her. Or maybe it was because she had a very bad feeling about this? Galloway had been watching her with beady eyes lately, every time she had come into contact with him.

A burst of anger and protectiveness came through the sparkbond. **{Do you want us to come babe? We can stay close if you want us to.}**

She stood and straightened her clothing out to look more presentable, before giving her mates a reassuring look. **{No. Just stay here and I'll tell you about it when I come back.}**

Both of them frowned at her but otherwise did not comment. **{Ok sweets just be safe ok?}** Sides murmured affectionately as he leaned down and gathered her up so that he could press a soft kiss to her face. He tilted her so that Sunny could do the same, before he sat her down on the floor near the foot of the berth.

She nodded once to them. _'Ok I'm on my way.'_

She exited her room and made her way down the hallway feeling dread creeping up on her. Anxious, and fidgety, she even looked around every corner as if waiting for an ambush or something. And her emotions were not helping her mates to relax either! She tried to calm down when she felt their own anxiety spike, but she just did not have a good feeling about this!

The trip to the hangar was shorter then she wanted with her arriving there in the blink of an eye. She immediately made her way over to Optimus and Galloway, the latter who was on the catwalk so that he could be closer to eye level with Optimus.

She didn't miss the intensely scrutinizing look that The Secretary of Defense gave her as she approached. "Optimus? Ironhide said that you two needed to see me?" She stopped next to Optimus's pede and peered up at him. Anything to avoid having to look at Galloway's shady face.

Optimus reached a servo down for her and picked her up so that he could bring her to Galloway's level. "Yes. Galloway wished to speak to you," Optimus spoke in a tight clipped tone. "Please turn your comm device off until you leave us."

She stiffened due to the anger she could sense in his words, and from the sharp burst of anger she could feel from three separate sources. And that was only through the sparkbonds she had, there were various other emotions of varying kinds from every other bot on base, ranging from anger and rage, to suspicion. Even so she reached down and flipped her comm device off as she had been instructed to.

Galloway started speaking as soon as she did. "So you are one of these women...that have unusual power?"

Shrinking back into Optimus she felt the earlier wisps of dread turn into full on claws digging into her spark. She knew that this was going to happen! Her spark sped up in distress, she desperately tried to slow it down before she had a sparkattack.

Nodding once she spoke in a forced calm voice. "Yes I am." Her voice came out strong, nowhere near like how she was really feeling.

Galloway strode down the cat walk until he was almost completely level with her. "How do you do it? What exactly are you?"

Her mouth fell open but no words came out. She dulled the bond down as her terror became palpable to prevent the twins gladiatorial programming from kicking on. He knew! He knew and there was no lie that she could come up with that would explain what they could do! What the slag was she supposed to say to put a stop to this mess? Because she knew where this was going...experimentation.

Her eyes drifted over to Optimus and he looked at her sadly. It only made her spark stutter even harder in her chest. He was just as surprised and unprepared for this as she was.

"You will answer me!" Galloway suddenly snapped when she did not respond to his earlier question. "You are a citizen of this country and thus subject to its laws and Government! Now answer my question! What are you?!"

Spark humming loudly in her chest, she turned back to Galloway and glared at him. "Not that it's any of your business, but I am a hybrid mix of a human and a Cybertronian. And before you start making accusations against the Autobots, I feel like I need to tell you that I was here long before they were. About six hundred years before in fact. Decepticons created us," she explained when she saw his eyes darken and shoot over to Optimus accusingly.

Those beady hateful eyes turned back to her, studying her intently. So many ideas, so many different emotions flashing through them, but only one triumphed. Curiosity. And curiosity was dangerous for her kind to be subjected to. "How? In what ways are you different than other humans?"

"Advanced genetic engineering. As for how we are different...well we are stronger and faster physically, and our senses are far more advanced. And as you have already seen we can form electrical attacks from our hands." And various other parts of their bodies, but he didn't need to know everything about them.

For his part Galloway regained his stoic and haughty mask, only nodding here and there with that same calculating look in his eyes. "I do not suppose you would allow us to study you?"

Optimus broke in at that point for her because she locked up. "No you cannot. She is a living being with thoughts and emotions! You will not subject her to being your lab rat!" he interjected in a heated tone.

Galloway only turned to look at him impassively. "Oh but I can." Turning he made his way down the cat walk eyes never leaving her. "You see, she is an American citizen and as such is subject to our laws. That means that as a Government official I can insist that she come with me, and she has to. If she does not come along willingly...I can have her detained."

Her entire body started shaking like a leaf as she shrunk back into Optimus's chassis like a scared sparkling. In response the Autobot leader covered her with his other servo as he glared, yes glared at Galloway. "She is under our protection! You cannot simply-"

Galloway cut him off. "Oh but I can! You see, she is not mentioned in our treaty Optimus. Therefore she is exempt from your protection, as are the other hybrids that I know for a fact that you are housing here." He came back down the cat walk and stopped in front of her leaning on the rails so that he was closer to her. "I can always insist that one of them comes with me...or I can take all of them. It is legally within my power to do so."

No! Not Estelle and the others! She couldn't let that happen! No matter what!

"I came with the council's full support. They are just as interested in finding out about these so called hybrids as I am."

Optimus growled and clutched her shaking form closer to his chassis as he leaned down into Galloway's face. "Our alliance will be terminated if you try and take her against her will. We will protect our own, and she is as much an Autobot as the rest of us. Her mates will second that."

Speaking of mates...they were slamming themselves against her block to try and pinpoint what exactly was going on. She winced and strengthened it to keep them out, as best she could when she was terrified of becoming a living experiment again.

Galloway's face erupted into a furious glare. "You can and will be exiled from this planet should you try to undermine the council's orders! I do not need to remind you that you are guests on this planet do I? And guests can always be sent on their way! That goes for her mates as well! And I do not think that she can survive deep space, deep OXYGEN deprived space."

She fought down the urge to whimper and scream! It was so hard because every part of her was terrified of going back to the life that she had led before! And now here she was racing in that direction with no way to stop it! There was no way that she was going to subject the others to whatever Galloway had planned either; it was her fault that they were there in the first place!

"Her mates-"

"Are not legally bound to her in any way, therefore they have no say in this. Then again I can insist that one of the others come instead of her. See? I am willing to compromise by only taking one." Galloway's face twisted into a self-satisfied smile. He had won and he knew it.

It was completely silent for several long moments before all pit broke loose! One moment it was just them in the hangar, and the next everybot on base, even the other hybrids were there with weapons pointed at Galloway. In response to that several platoons of human soldiers, and military vehicles moved into the hangar and reciprocated the action.

She could see her twins from the corner of her eyes trying to get to her, looking torn between that, and trying to destroy the threats arrayed against them. If...if she did not do this...would the council really kick the bots off of Earth? If they did she would be separated from her mates forever...because she could not survive in space without oxygen. And she doubted that there were many planets out there that had oxygen that they could live on.

Her head was whirling madly as she tried desperately to think of something to do to prevent this! All this senseless bloodshed that was astroseconds away from happening! All because she had made the choices that she had! It was all her fault!

Her fault...and she had to answer for it. "Galloway let's make a deal."

All yelling and shouting immediately stopped when she spoke. Galloway merely raised a brow at her and nodded. "Yes. Perhaps we could make a deal that would make everyone happy."

Cringing internally she leapt onto the cat walk causing several of the bots to growl and inch closer as if to protect her. She waved them and her twins off as she stopped in front of Galloway. Her eyes met his deep hateful ones, seeing every last bit of malice and violence contained within. "I'll go."

"NO YOU WON'T! WHAT THE PIT ARE YOU THINKING?!" Sunny immediately roared furiously. "YOU ARE OUR MATE! OURS! NOBOT IS GOING TO-"

Responding instantly, she sent a strong pulse of warning over the bond to him and Sides, as well as her dad who looked ready to blow a gasket. None of them looked happy about it, but she had to focus on what she was doing. "I will go with you on the grounds that you do not ban the Autobots from Earth...and you must make the council promise to leave the other hybrids in peace."

Galloway raised a brow at her. "Yes of course. I am sure that can be arranged. Is that all?"

"Unless you are willing to allow me to return here and spend time here then no," she added in a dry malicious tone. This man...oh how she hated him! Almost as much as she hated her own Sire and Burstimpact! He was stripping away her happiness piece by piece while she was left grasping for whatever could be salvaged.

And here she and her mates had been planning for sparklings...for a happy future together. Now she was going to be taken away from all of that again!

"No I can't do that because you might run...and as of this moment you officially belong to the United States Government." Galloway sneered at her as he stepped aside and gestured for her to move down the ladder towards several large men who were waiting for her.

She did so, looking at the sparbroken looks on her mates faces, on her dad's face, on everybots face except for Limelight. At least somebot was happy to see her go to her own personal pit... She jumped down from the cat walk soundlessly and walked over to where several soldiers were waiting with what she realized were reinforced titanium restraints that even she would not be able to break out of without a fair bit of effort.

One of the men stepped forward and gestured for her to hold her arms out with them pressed together; when she did he slapped the titanium arm restraints on her. They covered the entire length of her arms and gave her no room to move to build up strength; they also were attached to a tight collar that was locked around her neck. Effective since if she jerked she could break her own neck...

Her world went dark when a sleek helm of some kind was placed on her head like a hood. She felt a brief trickle of fear from her mates, from everybot in the room. She...she wanted to apologize to all of them for starting this mess. But most of all she wanted to apologize to her dad and her mates...for bonding to them only to put them through this ordeal. They would suffer from her absence...

They wanted to do something...anything to save her. But even her mates knew that they couldn't do anything short of ripping Galloway and his men apart...which would be a direct violation of the treaty. If that should happen they would be banished from earth anyways to a place that she could not follow. They would be separated anyways. At least this way there was a chance for them to meet again. Her spark pulled her in their direction almost desperately...and their sparks reached out and caressed hers through the bond.

In the soft touch she could feel their reassurances that they would get her back. She could feel the full extent of how much they loved her...and how angry they were at how she was being treated. **{We'll get you back love. Nothing else will even matter to us until we do!}** Sides practically growled.

The internal growl turned into a full blown roar when one of the soldiers shoved her hard making her trip against the leg restraints binding her. She fell and hit the floor rather hard, though to her it was nothing really.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER LIKE THAT!" Sunny shouted, followed by the sound of him stomping across the hangar. Somebot must have grabbed him because he never reached her like he had obviously wanted to. "Babe! Let go of me Ironhide! They're taking our sparkmate! Look at her!"

She was yanked up roughly from the floor since she could not get up herself seeing as how they had cocooned her like a mummy in all manner of restraints. It jerked her arms painfully in her sockets sending pain through her sparkbonds making her three bonded mechs snarl because of the rough treatment. She sent her own comforting aura back over them, telling them that she was ok, that everything would be fine. Even if she herself didn't believe it.

Someone jerked her forward and loaded her into the back of what she guessed was a reinforced truck. She was laid on a firm platform of some sort and someone sat down beside her. Before the doors closed she looked up even if she could not see with her eyes, she could feel them, her mates and friends...and she looked in their direction and tilted up her lips in a small smile for a brief moment before the doors slammed shut.

Flopping back against the berth she almost whimpered in fear... The humans...would they even be able to keep her alive during the experimentation? She guessed that would remain to be seen...

The truck roared to life and slowly pulled away from her home...from her friends...her dad...her mates. The only real home and family that she had ever had... And she was powerless to do anything about it. No she had to make the sacrifice to keep them safe no matter the cost to her.

And the cost would prove to be grievous she was sure of it.

* * *

><p>(Optimus's POV)<p>

As soon as the army vehicles and personnel filed out of the hangar the bots gathered were left completely in tatters emotionally. Not one of them wanted to believe that what had just happened had really happened. To watch their comrade, one who had suffered so much already, willingly go back to the same pain to protect them.

The moment of silence came screeching to an end when Sunstreaker gave an enraged roar and slammed his fist into the wall punching a hole clean through it. But he didn't stop there; he started repeatedly slamming his fists into the wall over and over again. As their leader he wanted to tell him to stop, but he could not...because the young mech's sparkmate had been taken... The terror twins were hurting, and as their leader he had not been able to prevent it.

That was why he did nothing even when Sideswipe joined in and started ransacking the hangar, knocking shelves over, and tearing up the walls like his twin was. He just watched; spark thrumming in agony over this latest failure to protect one of their own. And she was one of them. From the very day that she had first come into their base he had considered her one of his Autobots. And now he had to admit that he had done nothing, that he had been unable to protect her.

He turned away from the rampaging twins when Prowl and Ironhide came over to him. "Prowl I want you working on finding out a way to get Lilah back. Anything, any loophole we can find and exploit." When his SIC nodded and walked off with Jazz he turned to Ironhide and frowned. "We still need to prepare for the new arrivals. They should be landing sometime tonight...take Bluestreak, Ratchet, and Smokescreen with you to intercept them."

Ironhide nodded, looking contemplative and worn. "Are you okay Optimus?"

He nodded once while watching the two rampaging mechs from the corner of his optics. "We will figure out a way to get her back no matter the cost. I already have Prowl and Jazz working on it. However we still need to make preparations in case these new signatures are Autobots. Have Arcee and Wheeljack prepare rooms just in case."

* * *

><p>(Sunny s POV)<p>

So they could do nothing! Not a Primus fragging thing! And it was only serving to slag him off that they were separated from her with no way to get her back!

"Optimus will think of something." Ratchet growled angrily. "We will get her back. No humans are going to turn my sparkling into a living experiment and get away with it."

Both Sides and him turned to Ratchet and growled, not in anger at the CMO, but in rage over the fact that they even had to get her back! This was a constant struggle to keep their mate safely in the base! Did humans not respect bonds? They were almost as bad as the Cons!

"He better," Sides growled. "If he doesn't we will go and...we'll get her back no matter what we have to do!"

Oh he definitely agreed with that! They would go to any length to retrieve her given half a chance of success! Even if they had to go on the run from the humans after betraying the peace treaty! If it came down to her life being lost and that there was no contest!

"He has Prowl and Jazz working on it already."

He vented heavily rage still simmering heavily in his spark as the sudden overwhelming sorrow crashed into him. His leg hydraulics gave out suddenly sending him crashing to the floor in a heap. His paint chipped in several places but he didn't even care in the least.

The sorrow and loss was overwhelming him too much for him to care about anything...until she was safely within his arms again. Where she would have to stay permanently from the looks of it, because every time she left his sight something bad happened.

And it was taking everything in him to resist his gladiatorial programming which was desperately trying to take over and make him track her down...when he knew that he couldn't.

That slagged him off more than anything...

* * *

><p>(Lilah's POV- Five days later)<p>

For the last five days she had been alternating between being tied down to a medical table, stuck with needles of various sizes, stuffed with tubes that pumped all kinds of things into her, some that caused her entire body to burn like fire for hours at a time.

When she wasn't doing that her body was being tested in terms of durability. Which is where she found herself right now. Stripped naked and chained to a wall... They wanted to see the full extent of her durability and healing power...and as a hybrid her life and comfort meant far less than that of an actual human.

So far they had tested hornets nests, stun batons, and 9mm rounds. All of which she recovered from relatively quickly. So they had moved up to shooting her with shotguns loaded with rubber buckshots. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt when the rubber scattershot hit her, because it did, like a son of a glitch.

Her torso was dripping her Energon coated blood all over, staining her a dark purple and blue color. Her skin was hanging in several places from the rubber rounds pelting it over and over again at high velocity, and she could feel several broken ribs straining against her skin.

When you make someone out to be less than you are, you can justify doing a hell of a lot of awful things to them and nobot cares. That was proving to be true even in human society. Not one person, man or woman, had stepped forward to put a stop to her torment.

In fact they hated her, feared her, held contempt for her. She was not human! She was some sort of monster! The thoughts kept racing through their heads plaguing their thoughts and staining them with satisfaction when she was struck.

She shifted sending her now short red locks fluttering around her shoulder from where they had chopped her hair off in a jagged ugly cut. The tips scraped over a particularly sharp and nasty wound near her shoulder, making her wince and bite her lip to keep from crying out.

A gun went off again, a split second before her battered body was pelted with a barrage of hard rubber. Several shards shot into the gaping wounds, penetrating deep down into her flesh. The rest battered against her body causing severe pain, tearing more skin open and fraying it from her flesh. And by all the pits did it hurt!

This wasn't experimentation...this was a vendetta. They were systematically trying to kill her whilst learning everything that they could in the process. And at this rate they were going to succeed before the other bots managed to figure something out... Soon they would move onto real guns. No more rubber rounds meant to inflict pain and not serious injury. Real metal rounds that would tear her apart.

She heard the shooter stand meaning that they were either going to switch to a different weapon type, or they were going to move her back to the labs. At this point she could not tell because she could not see. Earlier they had been experimenting with her eyes by injecting various chemicals into her pupils. This had somehow rendered her blind after several agonizing hours, though whether it was temporary or permanent remained to be seen.

She got her answer when footsteps came towards her. Whoever it was roughly undid the restraints holding her to the wall and yanked her up none too gently. She was forced forward on shaky feet towards the now familiar exit...that meant that she was going to be either injected with chemicals again...or cut open. The bloodied stitches on her stomach could attest to that.

There was not ample time to think on it or her pain before she was pushed back onto a medical table and chained down.

"Crowley wants us to study her reproductive systems," one of her captors instructed the others.

None of them responded verbally. But they didn't need to...she heard their compliance when their electric saw whirred to life.

"Stay still beast."

Her body tensed and jerked violently as her stitches and flesh were torn into by the sharp teeth of the saw. She kept the scream inside, within the safety of her side of the dulled bond. Where it would stay because she did not want her mates to hear and feel what she was feeling, even if they were constantly bashing themselves against the wall she had built between them.

She could not let them in...for if she died they might die from sparkshock when her spark extinguished. And of all the things that were possible in her mind that was the one thing that she never wanted to happen. Not ever.

* * *

><p>(Sides POV- Two days later)<p>

One earth week had gone by since Lil had been taken from them, and each day since they had felt the dull wisps of agony that she was trying so desperately to keep from them. But pain that strong was impossible to dull down completely in a bond like theirs. They were sparkmates, merged on a level so close and intimate that a human could never understand it.

Yet they still had not found a way to do anything to save her. And with the new arrivals, Blaster, Hot Rod, and Flareup being moved in things had been so chaotic that no progress was seemingly being made. That was not making for happy terror twins.

The most important thing for them was not their new allies! No it was their sparkmate! That was why when Prowl had called for an emergency meeting in regards to Lil they had gone running. And not just them but every bot on base, even the newbies.

They came screeching into the hangar where every other bot was gathered, pushing their way through until they were closer to the front. No sooner had they done that Optimus started talking.

"As all of you know one week ago one of our comrades was taken into human custody." Various growls and mutters of disapproval passed through the gathered bots and hybrids. Optimus looked around at the gathered bots with stern serious optics. "I have no doubt that at this moment they are performing immoral experiments on her." More angry growls. The loudest being from Sunny and Ratchet. He kept his own anger inside in an attempt to keep calm and composed on the outside. "That is why it is imperative that we get her back. Unfortunately there are few ways to do that...save for making a tradeoff."

From the corner of his optics he saw Ratchet and Jazz stiffen. He too was wondering what exactly Optimus could be planning.

The Autobot leader turned and gestured for Prowl to bring a large tarp covered item over to them. It reached up to roughly Optimus's hip joints and looked to be rather bulky. Optimus quickly tugged the tarp off revealing a good sized ion cannon.

Several murmurs rose from the crowd. "You want to give them our weapon technology?" Hot Rod asked in disbelief. "Can we risk giving them something like that? What if they turn it on us and hunt us down? Is this femme worth the risk?"

Everybot that knew Lilah turned on him and snarled out a loud, "YES!"

"Calm down everybot!" Optimus spoke drawing their attention all back to him. "Ironhide and I have worked on this weapon extensively to ensure that it does not function properly. It still maintains an electric signature, however it does not fire. And from the state of human technology it will be some time before they can figure out how to make it function."

"And if they don't want to accept a broken weapon in exchange for her?" Ironhide pressed. "What then?"

"They will accept it Ironhide. At this point they are so desperate for our weaponry that they would gladly take one that does not even function. And truthfully what choice do they have? The rest of our weapons are all built into our frames for the most part."

That was true...and if it got his mate back he was more than ok with doing this. "What about if they try to come for them again later? Humans don't know when to stop."

Optimus turned to him. "I am going to take this directly to Galloway and ask for an exchange, as well as for a new addition to the treaty. In exchange for giving them this weapon we get our ally back, as well as protection for all of the hybrids included in the treaty."

"And if he says no?" Sunny growled from right beside him. "Do we get to kill him then?"

"He will take it," Optimus frowned. "But if he should not accept it...I fear that we will be back to where we started."

Both of them tensed and growled, sparks suddenly lurching in their chassis'. No...Lil wasn't going to be left there long enough for them to figure something else out! She needed to be back with them! Back and safe with her mates where she belonged.

"It is the only option that we have at this point. We will not be the ones to violate the treaty."

"But they already have! The deal was asylum for us! All of us!" Ironhide suddenly exclaimed hotly. "And Lilah is one of us therefore she should automatically have been included in the treaty limits!"

Yeah he definitely agreed with that! "Ironhide is right! That and her spark is tied to our sparks! That makes her a part of us and we are included in the treaty!" He argued heatedly.

Optimus sighed. "Yes and how are we going to prove that to the humans? Without proof they will not believe us! Nor would they truly care even if we could prove it! So we must do what we have to in order to bring her home. Even if it is not the safest choice! We are playing for time here, and we are running out fast!"

Nobot argued with that, especially not him, Sunny, or Ratchet. "So when are we going?"

"Immediately. I have already contacted Galloway and asked for an audience at the pentagon in Arlington County located in Virginia. He agreed to meet me at this time tomorrow. That is why we must move quickly. I will be taking Ironhide, Prowl, and Jazz with me to the meeting. I want Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Ratchet, and the hybrids to be waiting in case Lilah is released back into our custody."

**'We're going to get her back Sunny!'** He could not contain his excitement! Soon she would be back in his arms safe and happy! And they could have sparklings like they wanted!

**'They better give her back,'** Sunny hissed like an irate cat, though he was just as excited as he was, if a little bit slagged off to the pit still.

"If there are no objections then we must move out. Time is short."

Murmurs rose from the gathered bots as those ordered to go readied themselves to move out. Optimus approached him while he was waiting and held out their last fragment of the Allspark. He looked at it in confusion for a moment before looking back at Optimus.

"In case she is...gone. This can be used to revive her...however I do not know what effects this could cause to the more human parts of her body. Use it wisely."

He accepted the shard and placed it in his subspace, optics heavily trained on Optimus's own. Their leader was willing to use what was probably the last remaining shard of the Allspark to revive their sparkmate...? What would happen to her...if they used it?

Were they willing to possibly risk changing her to save her? The Allspark would not have any effect on her organic tissue...so would her Cybertronian parts morph in order to reestablish and stabilize her spark?

To save her they were willing to risk almost anything... If she was at that point...where Ratchet could not save her, he would use it. If only so that they would never have to be parted from her again.

* * *

><p>Another CLIFFY! R&amp;R! And don't worry those of you who want little sparklets! Whatever I do will not affect whether they come or not trust me! They are going to be here eventually! Read! Review! Flame! Lol not really looking forward to if anyone does that last one but hey! Criticism is good sometimes. Vote for the poll I put up on my profile too! See ya!<p> 


	32. Chapter 32

So I'm pure fragging evil lol! And just in case any of you are shocked or outraged on what happens in the next few chapters, I have been planning this since the beginning. I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>She had long since lost the ability to speak now that her throat was torn open with the loose flaps hanging against the sides of her throat. The pain...the pain was worse than what she had been through with the cons even. Chemicals were running through her body causing damage to her internal organs and literally eating her alive from the inside out.<p>

At first she had wondered what exactly was the reason for this man this Crowley to be doing this to her. She was sure that Galloway would not have ordered him to slowly torture her to death like he was. But she had found her answer when she had tapped into the electrical impulses in his brain.

He was a survivor of Mission City, possessing a deep intense hatred for the Cybertronians on Earth. His son and wife had been killed by Megatron when the Decepticon leader had knocked a building over on top of them. So this was a vendetta. A true hate filled drive to end her life as painfully as possible.

And at this point it was going to happen. Her healing abilities were struggling to repair the damage, but it was far too extensive. Her dense organs had been literally corroded away to the point where they were barely even functioning. She was going to die. Her spark was slowly slipping away the longer she lay here with those cursed chemical agents racing through her veins. Sulfuric acid if she had scented right. There were others but the sulfuric acid was super concentrated, she could tell, and it had done a majority of the damage. She had to wonder...had he made it specifically to eat away at the metallic sheen coating her insides?

Probably. Did it really matter though? Not really. She was dead anyways. Even her dad could not repair the damage done to her.

Her spark thrummed in distress reaching out in a futile attempt to locate the sparks that she so desperately needed...to feel...at least one more time.

* * *

><p>(Optimus's POV)<p>

The shadowed faces of the council stared back from the monitors surrounding the room. In the center at the head of the table sat Galloway. He felt a small rush of intense anger for all of them, but he kept himself composed and focused on his task.

"Secretary Galloway." He greeted calmly and in a composed stoic tone.

"Optimus." Galloway greeted back smugly. "You did call for a meeting with me on such short notice. May I ask why you felt that you needed to see me?"

Lilah's face flashed across his processor once, smiling and laughing with her mates and Ratchet. He had to get that back, get her back even if the cost was not so favorable. "We have come seeking a trade...and a new addition to the treaty with protects our kind."

Several murmurs rose from both the monitors and Galloway. The man in front of him leaned forward in his chair and stared him down. "A trade? For the hybrid I'm assuming? What do you intend to offer for her return? If this is about her safety, I assure you that Crowley is quite a respected researcher who does not partake in inhumane experimentation. His orders are to study her blood and internals through the use of safe medical experimentation."

"Be that as it may Galloway, she is still one of us. She still has mates waiting for her to come back." Venting heavily, he turned and gestured for Ironhide to bring forward their currency.

The ion cannon was carter over next to him and he yanked the tarp off so that the council could see it. As he expected several of them made noises of approval when they took in the large weapon. Galloway was looking at it with greedy optics as well. "This is an ion cannon. As of this time it does not function properly and we do not have the necessary parts to repair it, however it does still function. There is much that can be learned and implemented to your weapons by studying it."

Galloway turned back to him with narrowed eyes. "It does not work? What kind of a trade is this? Trying to make fools of us?"

"No. The ion cannon functions, however the firing mechanism was damaged. We do not have the necessary parts to repair it. However the majority of it's functions still work. Therefore I am willing to offer you this in exchange for Lilah's safe return, and an addition to the treaty that protects the hybrids."

"And if we do not accept?" One of the men in shadow asked quietly.

He barely resisted the urge to growl at the sheer stupidity and greed of some humans. "Then you will continue to do harm against a femme that has protected your people many times over when you did not even know it. She should be thanked and commended for hunting the Decepticons long before my Autobots even arrived here. If it were not for individuals like her, your people would probably have suffered much more grievous damage by now."

"And think about it." Jazz piped up without his accent, letting all the bots know that he was being dead serious. "Now you're having her experimented on in a secret lab somewhere like a lab rat. When all she has done for you is protect your people. People that have always been against her. Don't sound very grateful to me." He finished dryly.

"Be that as it may," A woman started this time. "she is still expected to show loyalty to her country in any way that it is required of her. However, I believe that there are many advantages to this deal."

The first man piped up again. "Yes but how are we to truly benefit from studying a broken weapon? We can benefit much more from our studies of the hybrid. Think of all the weapons knowledge that we can gather from her! On top of all of the medical knowledge!"

A different man, older from the sounds of it spoke up next. "Yes but what the bot says is true. Experimenting on this woman like she is little more than a lab rat is unethical. And when we have weapons technology being offered to us, is there really a need to continue studying her for the same reason?"

Several murmurs broke out from each person on the screens. "No I suppose that there is not. However, as Galloway has said, Crowley is a respected Doctor. I doubt that he would damage her unnecessarily. His orders were not to kill her or harm her in any way, they were to take blood and tissue samples and study them." The first man spoke up again.

"That is true. However, I agree with what was said before that. There is no real reason to keep her in human custody when you all have gotten what you wanted. New weapons to study. I say that we release her into their custody." The woman stated.

More murmurs... Then the first man spoke up. "You wish to add the protection of the hybrids to your treaty? What are the details of this proposition?"

His spark nearly soared. Now they were getting somewhere! "Asylum for them as well. They will be placed formally under our protection."

"In exchange for the weapon? Not for the right to study your other weapons?" He pressed.

"Correct. Our weapons are built into our bodies, and as part of the treaty you are not allowed to study our frames. I am afraid that this weapon is the best that I can offer you. The original treaty must still be respected in addition to the new details."

There was silence for several long moments as several of the men talked it over quietly. "Galloway?" The main spokesperson beckoned his attention after each of them had fallen silent again.

Galloway gave them his immediate attention. "Yes?"

"Draw up the new additions to the treaty in exchange for the weapon. Give them the location of Crowley's lab and contact the good Doctor to let him know that his patient is to be released into Autobot custody."

"Of course." Galloway nodded once before the screens cut out. He turned back to them and took out a small phone from his pocket, punching some numbers into it, and holding it up to his ear. After several moments passed someone must have answered. "Crowley? This is Secretary of Defense Galloway. The council has deemed to release the hybrid back into Autobot custody." His brows furrowed in confusion. "I'm afraid that it's out of my hands. Your orders were only to study her until stated otherwise."

A sinking feeling started up in his spark. **_'One of you hack the signal and find her!'_**

**_'On it boss bot!'_** Jazz responded back immediately.

"Yes they will be coming to retrieve her immediately." Galloway's expression morphed into an angry frown. "There is nothing that I can do about it Crowley! You have your orders and I have mine! The hybrid had best be in pristine shape when they come to get her otherwise your job is forfeit!" With that Galloway disconnected the call.

_**'Got it! Sending Ratchet and the twins the coordinates right now!'**_

He could only pray that they got to her in time!

* * *

><p>(Sideswipe's POV)<p>

They were moving as soon as Jazz sent the coordinates to the place where the phone call had taken place on this Crowley's end. Luckily it was not far away in the business section of the City.

Annie was shifting nervously in his passenger seat for the entire ride. "We're gonna get Lilyboo back!" She cheered as they stopped in front of a large high end research facility. Before he had even stopped completely she was out the door of his alt mode and bouncing on her pedes.

He activated his holoform, making sure that the Autobot symbol was present on the right side of his shirt just off of his spark. Setting his shoulders he waited for Sunny, Ratchet, and the other hybrids to catch up before they started towards the building together.

The closer he got the more the feeling of agony in his spark grew, dread intermingling with it. Something was very wrong. What it was he did not know, only that it pertained to their mate. They had to get to her! The sooner the better!

They stepped into the main lobby which was relatively empty thank Primus, and approached the front desk where a pretty human femme was sitting talking on a phone. She looked up when they approached and smiled flirtatiously at him and Sunny. "Can I help you?"

He completely ignored her seductive tone and leaned over the desk. "We're here to speak to Doctor Crowley. He knows that we're coming."

She pouted at his dismissal but otherwise picked up a phone to contact the doctor. "Doctor Crowley? There are some people here to see you... Hold on a moment let me ask." She turned back to them, brown eyes discreetly roving his form. "Is it urgent? He is in the middle of something."

Sunny stepped forward and slammed his servos down on the desk startling the poor woman. His twin leaned in closer to her and glared with as much anger as he could muster. A lot seeing as how it was Sunny."Yes it is urgent! He has strict orders from Secretary of Defense Galloway! If he does not come up here we will go to wherever he is!"

The woman turned back to the phone and repeated what Sunny had said word for word into the receiver. She sat nodding every few moments to something that the male said to her. After a few moments she turned back to them and smiled. "He says that you can find what you are looking for down the hall and to the right. Go all the way to the end of that corridor and take a left, then go down the flight of stairs that you see there. Take a right off of them and it is the third door on the left."

"Thank you." He muttered before he turned and stalked off in the direction given. No he practically ran down the corridors like a mad mech with everybot else sprinting alongside him.

They followed the directions given, practically throwing themselves down the stairs. His pedes carried him to the door that the woman had told them about...but as soon as he stopped outside of it the feeling of dread came back even more strongly.

His servo froze on the knob, shaking for some strange reason. Steeling himself he turned the knob and practically tore the door off of it's hinges in his haste to open it.

And what his optics landed on was nothing short of horrifying. He heard several sharp startled gasps as the others shuffled into the room and saw what he was seeing.

Lil...his and Sunny's mate...their perfect femme, laying hooked to various tubes that were pumping some noxious smelling liquid into her small body. Her hair, once long and silky was now cut up to her shoulders in a jagged uneven cut. Stitches, bloodied and seeping with infection were clearly visible on the front of her body, and her body itself was brutalized unlike anything he had ever seen.

Sections of skin had been torn off and were now hanging limp and dead against the bloodied skin. She was pale, paler than he had ever seen her before. Her breathing was uneven and pained, cutting off into shuddering gasps every few moments. And even from here he could hear the way that her spark was fighting just to keep thrumming.

In the space of a second he was beside her unhooking the tubes from her body, while Sunny did the same. She shifted, a dull pained sound escaping her mouth as her eyes slid open. However they were not her rich beautiful green anymore...they were a dull milky blue. Unseeing. Her brows furrowed weakly as her creator started scanning her body. "S...d...e?" Her voice broke sounding strained and not comprehensible. But he understood what she was saying.

_I missed you. Are you here to take me home now?_

"It's going to be okay Lil. We're here to take you home." His voice shook as tears welled up in his optics when they landed on her throat, flaps of gruesome looking skin hanging against the sides of her throat. Oh Primus what had they done to her?

The other hybrids gathered around her as Sunny knelt at her other side and took her free servo in his. Tears welled up in his normally stoic twin's optics. "Babe?"

She opened the bond for the first time in days, pain flooding their every receptor in a wave of intense agony. **{Su-n-n-ny? H-u-rt-s.}**

They both resorted to using the bond since it seemed to be the only way that she could communicate. **{We know love of our spark. Ratchet is going to take you home and fix you up in no time! Then we can keep trying for those adorable little sparklings that we want right?}** He tried to cheer her up, anything just to dull the pain that he could not feel quite clearly now that the bond was open. And it was awful...horrible...it was enough to make him wince even if he was not physically feeling it like she was. Not in the same way at least.

**{What happened babe? Tell us who did this to you and why!}**

**{Sp-p-ar-rk-ur-t-s. Mak-sto-p.}**

Her spark thrummed loudly in distress drawing all of their attention to her face as she whimpered and arched against the medical berth. She coughed, sprays of energon and her blood splattering against her chest and their servos.

Ratchet suddenly cursed and shot to his feet. "Her spark is being extinguished! We need to move her as soon as possible! I have a spark support machine to hook her to but we need to move! I need to do a more detailed scan of her as soon as possible!"

In response Sunny swept their mate up from the berth cradling her like she was a newborn sparkling. Miata handed him a long coat to cover her with on their trek back to their alt modes. Her fingers gently trailed down Lil's cheek as tears spilled over her cheeks. "Oh Lily why? Why do these things always happen to you?"

He watched the display for a fraction of an astrosecond before snapping out of it. "We have to move! Let's go!"

Everybot snapped out of their crying and immediately started filing out of the room at a brisk pace. If they wanted to have any chance of saving Lil whatsoever they had to move and move fast!

* * *

><p>(Sideswipe's POV- Twelve hours later)<p>

Optimus and the others had arrived back at base not too long ago...and now everybot that was not on active duty was stationed outside of the med bay while Ratchet worked on her. He could feel it in his spark...that he was losing her.

And it hurt! Primus it hurt worse than anything he had ever felt before! Worse than watching Cybertron fall! He could feel her spark struggling just to stay thrumming! And the pain racing through their bond was so sharp and agonizing that it was taking all that he and Sunny had to keep channeling it into them to dull her own pain down.

But it felt like they were getting nowhere! There was only so much that dulling the pain could do for the actual injuries themselves! How could h-

The door to the med bay slid open revealing Ratchet's weary looking face. "Come in please...all of you. We have matters that we must discuss." The CMO turned back around and led the procession of bots and hybrids into the med bay.

As soon as he and Sunny were in the door they were immediately at her berthside staring down at her. She looked no better than she had before they had brought her here, and that surprised them since Ratchet had been working on her. They shared a look and turned to Ratchet who was watching them sadly. "Ratchet? She's going to be okay right?"

Ratchet was quiet for a moment... "No." He finally murmured softly, looking sparkbroken at even having to say it. "Her internals were corroded with a strong acidic substance and I cannot repair them. And it seems that her healing abilities cannot reverse the damage either. The physical damage on the outside can be repaired, but it is the damage done to her organs that...is killing her."

"Killing her? But how!? What the slag did they do to her?!" He didn't even try to keep the tears from falling from his optics. She looked so small and fragile laying there...laying there and dying! All because of what those humans had done to her! A surge of anger shot straight through his spark, anger so intense that he just wanted to kill every human he came into contact with!

"They used some sort of corrosive acid on her organs. In doing so they were corroded to the point that they are barely even functioning at this point. And her spark is too strained to allow her body to heal the damage. I fear that it will extinguish as soon as I take her off of spark support." Tears welled up in the CMO's optics and spilled down his own cheek plates. But he did not sob or cry out like their bond suggested that he wanted to. "I could try transferring her spark into the sparkling frame but...at this point her spark is so weak that she may pass during the procedure."

Annie cried out in denial. "NO! LILY CAN'T DIE! JEZZ TELL THEM THAT SHE CAN'T DIE! NOT AFTER EVERYTHING SHE'S BEEN THROUGH!"

But there was no response from the other brunette, and that only served to make Annie start crying harder.

All he could look at was her...even dying she was still beautiful to him. The life that he had wanted for the three of them flashed before his optics. Her swelled with their sparklings, them kicking under his servos... Her holding their sparklings for the first time, it didn't even matter that the sparklings in his fantasies had human skin hiding their frames...they were still gorgeous to him. Her feeding them, cuddling and loving them. And now here he was being told that...that it could never happen. That she was going to die and nothing he could do would-

His processor froze when he remembered that he had the last shard of the Allspark in his subspace. Could that...would it be able to save her?

Sunny met his optics in surprise and sorrow. "Try it. If it saves her then I don't care what she turns into!"

Nodding once, he retrieved the shard from his subspace and removed it from the protective casing. "We can try this." He held it out for Ratchet and the others to see. "Optimus thinks that it might alter her body but...if she survives I can live with whatever she becomes."

A strong surge of hope swelled through their bond with Ratchet. The CMO nodded once. "Try it. We have nothing to lose besides Lilah's life."

Nodding once he bent over Lil's frail form and brought the shard to her chest. A bright flash of blue light lit off on the point of contact before the shard sunk into Lil's spark cavity. He felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his servos when the shard seemingly accepted her.

They waited...and waited...her spark thrummed loudly once, and then a burst of intense blue light shot out from her body. He and Sunny were forced back closer to the other's from the sheer force of the blast. He used his servos to cover his optics to protect them from the intense light.

A strange sound reached his audio receptors then. Like metal grinding together when Ratchet had to fix one of their protoforms. But he still couldn't see exactly what was happening. The light hadn't grown in size or anything, in fact it had shrunk down in size slightly.

Why it had done that he wasn't sure. But as the light started to fade after almost an entire breem he figured that he would find out soon.

The light receded slowly revealing tiny metal pedes, and further up revealing a tiny chassis with doorlets poking out from her back in a size that was considered too large for her body. Further revealing tiny servos...and long red translucent wires...all the way up to a tiny helm with tiny wing like antennas bending back over the length of it.

Shocked silence fell over the room then as her optics flashed once before onlining in a brightened almost gold colored green. A small whimper escaped her vocaliser then, followed by a small pained chirp. Her optics roamed around the room over all of the bots gathered.

He felt their bond still holding strong, and right now she was confused and scared. She could not remember what had happened, nor could she remember anybot in the room at this point. This was eerily similar to the dream that she had not too long ago.

She prodded at him over their bond releasing a loud ringing wail when he was too shocked to immediately answer it. That got Ratchet to snap out of his momentary shock and pick her up. Almost immediately her cries died down as she cooed up at her creator happily.

"This...I can't even..." The normally gruff medic ran his servos over her bare protoform checking for any pressing concerns. Lil cooed and squirmed as a scared cry fell from her vocaliser.

Images flashed across the sparkbond, blurred memories of being hurt. So her memories were there and she just could not access them at will. He sent her feelings of comfort and security over their sparkbond, when inside he was happy yet conflicted over these events. Yes she was alive and bonded to them as sparkmates but...she was also a fragging sparkling with amnesia!

"As long as she's alive we can wait Sides." Sunny murmured as he watched Ratchet interact with their sparkling mate. He stepped forward and peered over Ratchet's shoulder at the tiny gray sparkling making her turn to him and hold her arms out for him. Sunny immediately took her into his arms and cradled her gently against his chassis.

He followed his twin and peered at her over Sunny's shoulder as she once more sent images of her captors to them through the bond. There was a sense of confusion and fear conveyed to them since she did not seem to be old enough to talk. "Why did it change her into a sparkling?" He found himself asking aloud. Of course he was pleased that she was alive but...now they had to raise her!

"Little steps Sides." Sunny murmured as he sent back reassurances to their mate through their bond.

She chirped in confusion as images of their faces flashed through her memories briefly. But as fast as they had come they were gone leaving her confused and frustrated. She chirped again as if to ask why that kept happening. Well at least she seemed very advanced mentally for her apparent age.

"I need to scan her and create a set of armor for her. Luckily I still have the sparkling frame that we took from the cons so all I need to do is meld the armor to her protoform." Ratchet stepped forward and tried to take her back.

But he hurriedly snatched her from Sunny before Hatchet could take her. Lil squealed in surprise and warbled cutely as she squirmed against his chassis to get comfortable. "She's my mate too! I want to hold her!" He turned down to the love of his spark who was now a sparkling and started talking to her in a baby voice. "Hey Lil! It's Sides your mate! I bet you don't remember me but that's ok! You will love! You will! So anyways I'm happy that you survived your ordeal you know? Sunny and I, oh he's your other mate by the way."

She just looked at him cutely and chirped.

"Well anyways Sunny, Opi, and I thought that you weren't going to make it! But you did! It's ok that we have to raise you from sparkling age love! I bet you'll be an adorable little sparkling won't you?" Tilting his helm down he nuzzled her tiny one gently and pressed a soft kiss against it. "I love you Lil. No matter what happens or how long I have to wait. Even if we can't have sparklings now...as long as we have you it's all ok."

Those wide green optics peered up at him curiously the whole time that he was talking. She chirped and whirred, squirming in discomfort when her tanks gave a loud rumble. Almost immediately she started wailing at such a loud decibel that it almost defeaned him.

Ratchet snatched her from him immediately so that he could fetch her sparkling energon from one of his storage cabinets. Luckily he kept a lengthy supply of sparkling energon that he had saved over the vorns because no way was a sparkling going to drink that synthesized slag.

Lil was positioned comfortably in her opiluk's arms as Ratchet brought the warm bottle to her mouth components. She latched onto it and started drinking it down greedily. "That's it light of my spark...drink it all down."

Something tapped against his pede making him tear his gaze away and look down in surprise. In all of the chaos of seeing a sparkling Lil he had forgotten that there was anybot else in the room. So when he looked down and saw Annie staring up at him he was surprised. "Oh hey Annie." He reached down and picked her up gently. "What's up?"

Annie watched Ratchet refueling Lil for several long moments before she turned to him with a smile on her face. "We should give her a new name! Lilydancer!"

He started in surprise and looked at the hybrid like she was nuts. "But she has a name already! Why would you want to change it?" Although Lilydancer was a very pretty name!

Annie shrugged. "It fits! And if you start going around with a new Autobot named Lilah won't the cons become suspicious? If you rename her you can play her off as a new arrival or something right? This way Galloway and any other bots won't even know that Lily became a bot!"

He looked to Sunny and his twin shrugged. "It's a pretty name. It's up to Ratchet too though."

When he looked back to Ratchet the CMO was just finishing up refueling Lil. "What do you think of that Ratchet? She's a bot now so this is like a new life for her. Should we designate her Lilydancer?" A grin split his face plates when Lil looked over at him and chirped tiredly yet happily.

Ratchet looked down at her and massaged her doorwings gently. "I think that it is a good designation. Lilydancer. It contains remnants of her old name as well. I believe that it fits and Annie has a good point. We can play her off as a new arrival this way." He hummed at the small sparkling who was rapidly falling into recharge against his chassis.

With a tired warble her optics offlined. Her engine started purring in her recharge almost immediately making the other bots gathered chuckle or aww in Arcee's case.

Ratchet huffed and settled her into his sparkling hold gently. "The first sparkling since the war started is a hybrid turned Cybertronian due to the influence of the Allspark shard...I wonder what is different about her? I will have to do some scans after I fashion a tank for her." His optics drifted over to them and narrowed. "Two apparently. One for my quarters, and another for the twin's quarters."

"The next question is should we designate a guardian for her?" Arcee piped up next. "There may be times that you three are busy, and well she's not a full grown femme anymore. She's a sparkling and sparklings need constant care. So it may be beneficial to pick out a guardian to care for her when you three are absent. That way whoever is taking care of her has a bond with her!"

Ratchet hummed thoughtfully. "Yes I agree, however we can decide that all later. For now we should all go to recharge for the night. First thing in the morning I plan on examining Lilydancer thoroughly to make sure that she is in perfect health. I will also meld her armor to her as well."

"Can she stay with us tonight?" He asked almost desperately. His spark was demanding that he stay close to her to protect her. "We promise to be careful with her Hatchet! And we will bring her to you first thing in the morning promise!"

Ratchet looked like he wanted to protest but Sunny cut in before he could. "I won't let Sides do anything stupid around her Hatchet. And we are her sparkmates so our bond is stronger than your's. She will probably benefit after such a traumatic experience by being closer to us." His twin reasoned.

Ratchet glared at them and extracted Lilydancer from his hold. He handed her over to Sunny with a stern glare on his face plates. "I will hold you to that Sunstreaker!" Next he stalked over to his storage and retrieved several cubes of sparkling energon and a bottle, before stalking back over to him and shoving them into his servos instead of Sunny. "She will need to refuel every two hours! Do not forget it! If she is distressed in any way do come and find me! I mean it!"

"Okey dokey Hatchet!" He saluted the CMO once before he turned and led Sunny from the room passed the other gathered bots. Right before he stepped out the door he bent down and placed Annie on the floor. "See you in the morning Annie!"

"Bye Sides! Take care of Lily!" She waved them off as they made their way down the corridor.

They walked into their quarters and over to the berth. He hopped onto it after sitting the bottle and energon cubes onto the table near his berthside. His optics roamed over the room briefly landing on Lil's vanity and dresser...the ladder that was still attached to the foot of their berth. Nothing was going to be the same now. All of these things were not useless to her because she was not a hybrid anymore...at least not like she was.

His optics landed on said sparkling still in recharge in his brother's arms. A surge of yearning went through his spark for her...the old her. Some part of him would always miss the way that she used to be he was sure of it. But this was probably for the best...because at some point they were probably going to return to Cybertron and rebuild. Now she could go with them.

Sunny turned to him and offered her to him. "Come on Sides it's not all bad. She's still alive."

He took her and cradled her to his chassis as he laid back on the berth with her curled up over his spark chamber. "Right. I know that Sunny. It's just...she's so different now. She's the same but not really. Who knows how the shard could have changed her body! What if she never remembers us completely? What if she can't have sparklings without the allspark? We'll be right in the same boat as everybot else."

Sunny turned to him on his side. "I don't think that the allspark shard would have done something like that Sides. It probably turned her into a Cybertronian, but kept some aspects of her the same way. She could become sparked by interface before so she can probably get sparked by interface in this frame. And even if she can't it's ok. She's still alive right?"

"Right. That's right."

It fell silent after that. He laid there thinking on everything that had happened that day. At some point Sunny had slipped into recharge, but he could not follow. No his processor was too troubled to even power down remotely.

The sparkling against his chassis shifted every few kliks, cooing or clicking in her recharge. And every time it happened he was reminded of who she used to be compared to who and what she was now. Sunny was right, this was a good thing as much as it was a bad thing. But as long as they had her every thing would be ok right?

That was what he spent hours trying to convince himself of when every thing was just so uncertain. So many variables floating around in his helm made him feel like he was Prowl or something.

Eventually the sparkling on his chassis shifted and whirred sadly. Her little tanks gave a rumble making her hiccup once as her optics onlined and look up at him sadly. She chirped and sent pulses of need over their sparkbond. Another brief flash of his face passed through their bond, disappearing too quickly for his comfort. At least some part of her recognized his face.

Sitting up, he cradled her in his arms as he went about preparing a bottle of energon for her. "Relax little Lilydancer, Sides s going to get you some energon." He poured the sparkling energon into her bottle and heated it using the heat from his own spark by placing it in his spark chamber.

Once it was warm enough he took it and placed the nozzle in her mouth watching as she sucked the energon down greedily. Her little wing like antennas twitched and small pulses of brightly colored electricity flashed across the cream colored surface. A bright yellow burst raced across the surface as happiness swelled in her spark. Well that was cute...

As if hearing his thoughts her optics drifted over to him as her antennas flashed an even brighter yellow. She kept suckling from her bottle as she watched him much too intently for it to be considered normal for a sparkling. It was rather cute how her antennas would twitch like a bird ruffling it's wings then flash with whatever emotion she was feeling. The appendages themselves did not actually appear like feathers, but they had the shape of a wing.

Another thing that he noticed was that she had two sets of doorwings, one at her shoulders that appeared to be too large for her small frame, and another smaller pair attached to her hips. Like her wings they flashed every now and then with whatever emotion she was feeling, or maybe it was in response to some other stimuli.

Her mouth components released the bottle with a soft pop. He took it from her and placed it down on the table with the rest of her energon while he rocked her from side to side. Never in his life did he ever think for one moment that he would be technically mated to a sparkling. Pit something like this had never happened before! At the same time he was not looking at her like he used to.

The love he always felt for her was there, but it was as if it had shifted to a more pure form. He did not look at her small frame and crave interface, he looked upon her with the utmost love and adoration but in a more protective way. His spark knew who and what she was, but it was not thrumming with the need that he normally associated with her. Eventually it would come back when she was grown he was sure of it. But for now he would be her protector, whatever she needed him to be.

Because that was all that he could be to her right now. Anything but her lover...

As if she had sensed the sudden morose thoughts her tiny helm tilted up as a small sad coo fell from her vocaliser. In some way she understood, in her spark. Their mate was in there somewhere...and she would come back he was sure of it. They just had to wait patiently for that day.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Don't hate me! I was planning this from the beginning lol! It's all for good reasons! And I need to know who you guys want to act as Lilydancer's guardian! Ironhide, Blaster, Jazz, or Prowl? Let me know in your reviews!<p> 


	33. Chapter 33

So Jazz won the Guardian vote by a landslide! But for those of you who voted Prowl and Jazz you win! Because the two of them are bonded so any outside bond would be felt and shared by both of them! So from this chapter on Lilydancer has Prowl and Jazz for Guardians! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Lots of fluff and sparkling cuteness!

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

A soft cooing sound gradually pulled him out of his deep recharge. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that the feelings of need emanating from the bond he had with the small sparkling laying curled up against his twin's chassis that roused him. Whatever the case he onlined his optics and turned towards the other side of the berth.

Red was laying on Sides while his twin recharged, her little legs kicked and her arms squirmed around. Soft dove like coos kept escaping from her vocaliser and her beautiful green optics met his. Her antennas flashed a bright curious yellow as she reached out with a tiny servo and warbled.

Chuckling, he reached over and picked her up to cradle her against his chassis. "You need to refuel don't you Red?" When she only chirped up at him in time with the rumble of her tanks he smirked and got up from the berth to make her another bottle. After that they had to take her to Ratchet so that he could meld her armor and give her a physical examination.

He went about heating her sparkling energon and feeding it to her. A small smile tugged at his mouth components when she suckled her energon down, some stray drops dribbling down her chin. She cooed softly and purred as she drank the sweet liquid down quickly.

After she finished her meal she pushed the bottle away and chirped up at him curiously. She wanted something but she was struggling to remember what it was. Flashes of incomprehensible colors and voices passed through her processor before her thoughts shifted and landed on her purple blanket. She chirped excitedly and pushed her need for the blanket through their bond.

"Already ahead of you Sunny." Sides yawned from the berth. An astrosecond later their mate's purple fuzzy blanket was being handed to him.

Taking it he handed it over to the now cooing sparkling, watching as she took it and started cooing to it like she was talking to it. It was probably the cutest thing that he had ever seen and now he felt like a mushy fragger for thinking that. "We should take her to Ratchet." He murmured quietly.

"Yeah. She gets a set of armor today! Isn't that the bestest thing ever Lilydancer?" Sides leaned around his shoulder and started cooing at her.

It was comical how her optics locked on his red twin and widened as if she was looking at the most interesting thing ever. A soft series of warbles and clicks left her vocaliser as she apparently struck up an in depth conversation with Sideswipe.

And Sides jumped right back into the nonsensical conversation like the idiot he was. When his twin started asking her about her favorite color and what color she wanted to be painted cause nasty black was not going to work for her, he rolled his optics and started towards the door. "We have to take her to Ratchet. Stop messing around Sides."

Together they made their way to the med bay while Sides kept chattering to their sparkling/mate about anything and everything. So the entire walk was filled with her chirps and warbles, and Sides's idiotic comments and questions.

Luckily for him the med bay wasn't very far away from their quarters so they got there before he gave into the urge to throttle his twin for being so annoying this early in the morning. Ratchet was already setting up his work area when they walked in...with nanite booster shots, and her new set of black armor.

"Sit her down on this berth." Ratchet instructed them to put her on the berth nearest to him.

When he put her down she whirred and reached for him, obviously not liking being on the berth and wanting to be back in his arms again. All he did was shake his helm and back off when Ratchet came over. She chirped louder and flashed her antennas a bright orange communicating her irritation through sparkbond, and by the use of her wing like antennas.

It stopped however when her opiluk came over, then her attention turned to him and she held her tiny arms out for him. "No sparklet, opiluk needs to scan you."

In response Lilydancer...er Red made an angry whirring sound and flapped her doorlets against the berth.

Ratchet sent her calming sensations over the bond as he started running scans over her tiny frame. She seemed fascinated by the lights that ran over her and tried to reach out and grab them in her servos. Soft little happy coos escaped her vocaliser...until Ratchet got to the last scan.

When the bright red light washed over her frame she instantly recoiled back with a sharp terrified cry. Not a coo or a chirp, but a full scared human sounding cry. Feelings of terror wafted through their sparkbond as she rolled onto her side and rolled herself into a tiny ball, a typical sparkling defense.

Ratchet quickly finished the scan and picked her up so that he could rock her. **{It's ok sweetling. Opiluk will never hurt you light of my spark.}**

She gave a weak chirp and slowly uncurled from her balled up position. Her recent memory of the scan invaded her processor along with rapid flashes of similar instances, and the pain that accompanied them. The memories quickly faded leaving her feeling confused and frustrated.

**{Worry not sweetling.}** Ratchet rocked her for another few kliks before sitting her back down on the berth. Lilydancer squirmed, obviously not happy to be back on the berth again but she settled after a few astroseconds.

It was kind of unbelievable to sit here watching the femme that he had mated with turned into a sparkling. But whereas Sides was still happy yet torn over her apparent lack of memory of them, he was ecstatic that she was still alive. So ecstatic in fact that he would fully devote himself to filling her helm with new memories of them with no complaints. This way she could live a full happy life that wasn't filled with suffering. She could have good memories of growing up, not memories that were filled with pain and loss. Of course that was assuming that her spark did not force her to remember. Or their future sparkmerging did not make her remember.

Ratchet flitted around the berth taking her weight, height, checking her spark rate. "Everything seems to be in great working order. However from what my scans can see her body functions differently than our's in some ways. She is actually functioning more closely to how Demetri functions."

He bristled at the name being mentioned. "Oh? How so? And if he comes anywhere near her I'll kill him no questions asked."

Ratchet muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'me too'. "Well she has an energon converter located just above her fuel tanks, just off of her spark chamber. If my theories are correct, when she gets older she should be able to break down human food items and convert it as she could when she was a hybrid. Also her spark itself seems to be functioning at a much higher rate than a sparkling her age should be. Due to this her engines are able to work harder."

The CMO moved around to the top of the medical berth. "I have to put her in stasis for this part. It'll be ok sparklet." He cooed down at her as he quickly pressed something on the back of her helm.

She gave a small chirp as her optics dulled and offlined.

With her safely in stasis Ratchet moved to meld the new sparkling armor onto her uncovered frame quickly and efficiently. Since the sparkling frame that was originally meant for her was slightly bigger and had one set of doorlets, Ratchet was able to use the original doorlet armor, as well as make a new set for her smaller hip wings.

The only thing that was not favorable about the armor was that it was a deep onyx black. He personally wanted to see her painted blue or purple.

At that moment the door to the med bay slid open making each of them turn in the direction of the door where Optimus stood with Jazz and Prowl. "How is her examination going?"

The three mechs fully entered the room and watched Ratchet work on melding armor to Red's protoform. "Ratchet says that her body works almost exactly like Demetri's." Sides informed them quietly.

"It does." Ratchet muttered as he finished melding the last piece of her armor onto her doorwing. He switched his tools off and placed them on the medical table before turning to face them. "Even her reproductive systems are similar to when she was a hybrid, the only difference is that instead of sending a pulse of spark to give her sparklings life in the womb, her sparklings will be attached to her spark like a normal Cybertronian carrier, and they will split from her spark and sink into her gestation chamber."

His spark soared! That meant that they would be able to have sparklings!

"Another thing that is interesting is her sensory panels." Ratchet walked back around the berth and flipped the small form of their sparkmate onto her stomach plates gently. Once she was situated Ratchet gently pulled her doorlets up so that they could get a good look at the flashing undersides. "Her doorwings appear to be comprised of supersensitive nanites that give her an extremely heightened level of sensory perception. If my theories are correct her abilities will be the same as when she was a hybrid, only they may even be more advanced due to the power of the Allspark."

He turned her back over and pointed out her small wing like antennas. "And these antennas here appear to be able to sense the spark wavelengths of other bots, as well as sending her emotional state back into her environment. They also appear to be able to channel electrical impulses, so these little antennas are in effect how she affects her environment and other bots."

"So she would be well suited to being an espionage bot or a saboteur." Prowl stated.

They all looked over at Jazz and the SIC, Jazz was grinning and bouncing on his pedes excitedly. "Ain't it a good thin' tha' we offered to be her guardians then Prowler? Ah am sure excited mysel'!"

His spark dropped...Prowl acting as his mate's guardian?! JAZZ YES! But PROWL?!

Ratchet looked surprised even. "Jazz and Prowl volunteered to be her guardians?"

Optimus raised an optic ridge. "Jazz wanted to be her guardian, and since Prowl is his sparkmate that would bind Lilydancer to Prowl through Jazz." Their leader's optics drifted back over to the small sparkling laying in stasis on the berth. "Besides this will mean that she will always have somebot around to care for her no matter what. And both Prowl and Jazz are strong enough to protect her against anything."

"That is true." Ratchet sighed as he moved back around to the top of the berth and started bringing Red out of stasis. "Well I suppose that it is better to have multiple caretakers for her anyways. And since she is of Praxian build, save for the chevron, Prowl would be able to educate her on Praxian customs."

Lilydancer came back online with a distressed chirp. She appeared to be very angry at her opiluk and at them for letting him put her into stasis. Her optics roamed over the gathered bots and landed on Jazz, as soon as she saw him she chirped and held her arms out for him.

Jazz practically sprinted over and snatched her from the berth. "Ello baby girl! Mah designation is Da Jazz man! I'm yo' new guardian! Me n Prowler dat is! See?" Jazz shifted her in his arms so that she could see Prowl more clearly. "Dat's Prowler baby girl! He's da Jazz man's sparkmate!"

Pretty gold green optics widened...she stared at Prowl or more specifically at his doorwings. A soft chirp escaped her vocaliser as she twitched her door wings once excitedly and held her arms out for Prowl.

The SIC hesitated, but stepped forward and took her into his servo anyways. "Hello littlespark." He greeted quietly.

Their mate cooed once and pointed at his doorwings before flapping her's once. The motion caused her unsteady form to topple back over onto her back plates, making her whirr in distress. The whirr cut off when she noticed her pede in the air and shoved it into her mouth.

Prowl frowned and removed her pede so that she couldn't chew on it. "No. That is not proper behavior littlespark." The SIC watched her intently, waiting for her to try it again probably. When she did not after several kliks he turned to Jazz to say something.

As soon as he did that she had her other pede in her mouth and was gnawing at the paint. A soft happy coo fell from her vocaliser.

Prowl turned back as everybot in the room laughed at the tiny sparkling, frowning at her he removed her pede from her mouth components again. "No. Do not chew on your pede."

A small laugh was his response for that. Little antennas flashed a bright happy yellow, her little wings flapped against Prowl's servo as she pushed her happy mood out over the gathered bots.

It made even Prowl's lips twitch up in a small smile. "We should establish the guardian bond Jazz." Prowl stated quietly.

"Right! Good idea Prowler!" Jazz snatched her back from Prowl and placed her back on the berth where he tapped her chest plates once before opening his own. Prowl stepped up beside him and opened his own chest plates, spark flashing brightly as Jazz did the same.

With a soft chirp Red...er Lilydancer did the same and opened her chest plates. Her small spark thrummed once, flashing a bright almost silver color. Jazz picked her up, bringing her towards both of them as their sparks slipped partly out of their spark chambers. They melded together completely as soon as they were free of their confines, creating one large spark.

Red...Lilydancer could not eject her spark at such a young age so Jazz just pressed her tiny chassis up against their conjoined spark. She chirped, feeling confused that two more consciousness were sliding into her processor and spark. But she wasn't unhappy or scared of it, in fact she seemed merely curious.

The new bond snapped into place with a bright flash of blue light emanating from the touching sparks.

**[Testing...testing! Da Jazz man iz ere!]**

He cringed from hearing Jazz's loud voice in his processor.** [Please tell me that this bond can be turned off when I don't want to hear you?]**

Jazz turned to him as his spark slid back into his spark chamber and grinned.** [Yup! Sho can be! Bu' why would ya wanna block da Jazz man ou'?]**

**[Because you can be very annoying.]** Ratchet added his input dryly. **[And to answer your question Sunstreaker, simply block him like you would block Sideswipe. It should be much easier because your spark is not strongly tied to his. The bond only exists through your link to Lilah...Lilydancer's spark.]**

Almost immediately he threw up a strong block to keep Jazz out...and Prowl. "So do you have to do anything else for Red...Lilydancer? Or can we take her and-"

"Introduce her to the other bots!" Sides piped in...interupting him!

"Idiot we can't take her out around the soldiers! As far as Galloway knows we don't even have a sparkling on base! And if he finds out and tries to touch her or do anything to her I am doing to kill him!"

"Actually..." Optimus started quietly, optics touching on each of them briefly. "I spoke to Galloway just this morning about what happened to Lilah. I informed him that she had died from the injuries that she had suffered in the government lab. I also informed him that we had a new arrival coming in today. Lennox and Epps already know what happened so they are on our side for this. Neither of them were very happy when they saw pictures that Ratchet took of what had been done to her."

Prowl frowned and turned away from the small sparkling that was now sucking on her thumb happily. "That man should be ashamed of himself for allowing a femme to be harmed like that. In fact I think that we should ask for a new liason. Obviously he cannot be trusted, and I will not allow him to harm this sparkling again."

"That makes two of us Prowler...no that makes a whole base of us." Jazz added, pausing in making silly faces at Lilydancer to give them all a dead serious look. "I'll kill him if he tries it."

Optimus smiled and waved to Lilydancer when she looked at him. "I already spoke to Galloway and he has added the new treaty guidelines...as well as the council's condolences for what happened to Lilah. He informed me that Crowley's employment was terminated for failure to follow orders. As for getting a new liason...at this point I do not think we will be getting one for a while."

Prowl opened his mouth to say something only to be cut off when Lily brought her pede to her mouth components again. "No. Stop trying to eat your pede." Prowl admonished her softly.

A soft sad chirp fell from her vocaliser as her optics welled up with energon tears. "Mmminhhh." She whined.

Ratchet stepped forward and took her back so that he could set her on the medical berth. "She appears to be growing at an accelerated rate as well. I estimate maybe a year or two until she is full grown." He stated conversationally while he grabbed the nanite booster and brought the needle to an exposed wire on Lily's arm.

An almighty wail of anger shook the room when Ratchet poked her with it and injected the nanites into her. She thrashed wailing and crying, batting at the needle and kicking her pedes. Her antennas flashed a bright angry red as her cries reached a new level.

Ratchet for his part looked completely used to it and unphased. "Sparklings always do this when they have to get injections." He stated before tossing the used syringe into a wastebin. When he stepped forward to pick her up again she surprised them all by smacking his servo away angrily. Ratchet frowned and tsked at her. "Do not hit your opiluk!" He admonished her sternly.

"Uuuuhhhhhhhhh!" She cried angrily, antennas flashing a bright enraged red.

His optics were drawn to her wire like hair when he heard a zapping noise. They widened and he tapped Sides to get him to look as well when small electric sparks started dancing across the surface of her translucent red wires. he felt Sides's confusion and shock, as well as his interest when one of the appendages zapped Ratchet's servo when the CMO reached for her again.

Ratchet jerked back with a small hiss of pain and crossed his arms across his chassis sternly. "What did I just tell you? Do not hit your opiluk!"

Her little face plates scrunched up into a glare as her wires slapped against the berth almost warningly. Images of Ratchet poking her with the syringe flashed across the bond along with the sense of anger and fear she held for the event.

"I'm not going to poke you again." Ratchet reassured her.

Her optics stayed trained on her opiluk for another few kliks before she relaxed, antennas flashing a bright yellow as her electric current died down. She held her tiny servos out for her opiluk and cooed at him to get him to pick her up.

"No zapping or hitting." Ratchet warned her before picking her up. He rocked her gently from side to side to try and get her to fall into recharge, but she was not looking even remotely tired. "Going to be difficult now?"

_Coo. Click. Warble. Click. Whirr. Coo._

He snorted at her attempt at conversation. It was cute even if he didn't understand it. "She's not tired Hatchet. Sides and I can take her and play with her for a bit."

"And paint her! Oooh and introduce her to the other bots behind Galloway's back!" Sides piped up excitedly.

He turned and smacked his brother on the back of the helm. "After the 'retrieval' party comes back tonight! That way we can play Lilydancer off as a new arrival!"

Sides pouted. "Can we show her to the bots that we see if there aren't any humans around?"

Growling warningly, he reached out and accepted the tiny form of his mate into his arms. He settled her in the crook of his arm briefly so that he could slide his chest plates open and deposit her into his hold. "We were thinking of painting her purple or blue. What do you think Hatchet?"

Ratchet lifted an optic ridge at him. "You two are the artists here not...purple. Dark purple. It will look good against the gold and red of her optics and hair...wires."

"Yes that would work. I was also thinking dark blue though too...or maybe light blue."

"I like purple too." Sides added thoughtfully. "Though blue will offset the red and gold really well too! But then she will look too much like Optimus...so purple?"

Optimus looked offended. "Why is it so bad if she looks like me?"

Sides pursed his mouth components and looked at their leader warily. "I wasn't meaning it like that! I meant that it would be cool to give her a more original paint scheme! She's gonna be a real beauty when she gets older so she deserves a gorgeous paint job!"

"She's beau'iful no'." Jazz pointed out.

He scowled as he felt the sparkling fluttering around in his hold. "Purple...with gold accents! And that is final!"

"Hey! How come she gets to have your color as an accent and not mine?!" Sides protested with a pout.

Spinning on his twin he smacked him over the back of the helm again angrily. "Idiot! She already has your color for her wire hair! Her optics are a goldish green! They aren't pure gold like me! That's why she gets gold accents in her paint!"

"Afthole." Sides muttered quietly.

"I wanna come too!" Jazz interjected. "Prowler's go' stu'f ta do so I'm gonna come an' play wit da sparklin!"

Both he and Sides shared a look before turning back to Jazz and nodding. "Whatever." He muttered as he turned and walked out the doors to the med bay without a backwards glance.

* * *

><p>(Sideswipe's POV)<p>

After a quick stop to the supply room to grab the paints that they would be using as well as a tarp to place Lilydancer on, they holed themselves up in the rec room and locked the door. Only a superior officer would have the codes to get in, AKA Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, Optimus, Jazz who was already with them...

Anyways they had pushed all the furniture up against the walls and made a play space in the center of the room on top of the tarp. Just in case she fell into recharge while playing. That way they could paint her without having to move her much.

He watched her lay on her stomach plates and bat at Jazz's pedes happily. Her little antennas would flash and twitch whenever Jazz would hop out of the way just before her servos made contact with his pedes. She would reposition herself by scooting on her stomach plates so that she could try and get at the silver mech's pedes again.

_Click. Coo. Click. Whirr. Giggle. Warble._

She squealed and rolled her tiny body toward's Jazz, and the saboteur relented and let her clutch onto his pede. Gasping in fake shock Jazz fell onto his aft and held a servo to his chassis dramatically. "Yo' go' meh baby girl!"

She giggled and kicked her pedes against the tarp. "Mmmmaaammmmuphhh."

"I wonder how old she actually is?" Sunny murmured from beside him.

He shrugged and got down onto the floor to crawl over to their sparkmate. When she turned to him he started making silly faces at her causing her to giggle and coo happily. She held her servos out for him and made grabby motions at him.

He didn't move towards her because he wanted to see if she could crawl or scoot over to him.

She narrowed her optics at him and whirred sadly. "Mmmmmiiiinha."

Jazz took his que and helped her onto her servos and knee joints. "Yo' go''a get im baby girl. If ya can dat is."

Jazz let go causing her to topple down onto her stomach plates again when arms weren't strong enough to support her. She clicked angrily and stared at him intently for a moment. She made several more clicking sounds and tugged herself so that she was laying so that her side was facing him.

He watched her in amusement as she rolled over to him making Sunny and Jazz snicker. A grin split his mouth components when she rolled onto her back plates right in front of him. "You're such a smart sparkling!" He praised her and picked her up. "Lilydancer is the smartest sparkling since Prowl huh? Little cheater!"

_Click. Click. Coo._

"That's right! Lilydancer is the best sparkling ever!"

"Aaaagaaaaagaaaaammmmphhhh." She stuck her glossa in between her mouth components and blew mouth lubricant all over him, clapping when he made a silly face at her in response. "Mmmmmmmmnnnnnnna."

"What is she even trying to say?" Sunny muttered.

At that moment the door to the rec room slid open and Ironhide walked in. When his optics landed on the three of them playing with Lilydancer they narrowed.

Lily waved an arm in a jerky motion at him. "Mmmmmmmaaaaaaaannnnnnnniiiiiii." She gurgled happily.

"What the pit is she trying to say?" Sunny repeated. "And close the door Ironhide! Galloway doesn't know that she's here yet."

Ironhide snorted and closed the door behind him. "She's a sparkling Sunstreaker! She doesn't even know what she's trying to say. I bet she's trying to stimulate her vocaliser in an attempt to talk, not that she understands what she's saying in any way."

"So she's speakin' gibberish?" Jazz grinned and leaned down into Lily's face plates. "Bababababababababa!"

"Babababababababababa!" She repeated with a giggle. Her little doorlets twitched and fluttered against her back struts happily. "Babababababababababa! Babababababababababammmmiiiiiiinnnnh!"

Ironhide got his energon cube and flopped down on the floor near them causing Lily to swivel her helm in his direction. A small smile pulled at the weapons specialist's mouth components as he stared back at her. "Hello little sparklet."

She made a curious clicking sound and held her servos out for him. "Mmmmmmmmnnnnnnphhh." Her antennas flashed a curious yellow.

Ironhide sat his cube aside and reached out to take her from him, he cradled her expertly against his chassis. "It's weird to see you as a sparkling Lilah...I mean Lilydancer." He frowned and gently rubbed her doorlets. "Pit it's weird to see a sparkling at all. Must be close to a million years since the last one was born..."

"Mmmmmminhhhhaaaababababababababa!"

Ironhide chuckled quietly. "You're gonna have a pretty voice when you get older."

While Ironhide was fawning over Lily he...may...or may not be recording it for later distribution. He grinned when Ironhide lifted her up and settled her against his shoulder plate with one servo used to steady her and make sure that she didn't fall off.

The weapons specialist used his free servo to grab his energon cube and down the contents before he crushed it and tossed it to the side somewhere. As soon as he was finished he brought Lily back down to rest in the crook of his arm comfortably. "So I heard from Prowl that she's gonna be well suited for being a spybot when she's older. That probably explains why Jazz and Prowl were chosen to be her guardians huh?" There was a distinctly pouting undercurrent in his voice that Ironhide desperately tried to hide.

"Naw me n Prowler volunteered befo' dat!" Jazz grinned and made faces at her again resulting in more giggles from her.

"I could have taught her weaponry..." Ironhide protested.

"Somebot's jealous!" Jazz teased him. "Loo' at dem face plates tho'! She's so dang cute dat is unfair! Am happy to be 'er guardian tho'! We gonna have lotsa laughs!"

Lily's face plates suddenly split as her mouth components opened in a wide yawn. "Somebot's tired!" Ironhide pointed out with a chuckle. He started rocking her gently from side to side while he used his other servo to gently rub her doorlets.

Almost immediately her bright golden/green optics dulled and offlined. Astroseconds later a soft purring started from her little engine.

"Finally!" Sunny muttered as he broke out the paint cans from his subspace. When Ironhide gave his twin a dubious look Sunny frowned and pointed at Lily's paint. "We're giving her a new paint job. Had to wait until she was in recharge first though."

"You're going to paint her? Is that paint sparkling safe?" Ironhide sighed when they stared at him in confusion. "She's a sparkling." He pointed out dryly.

"Yes we know that." He muttered irritably. What the slag did Ironhide think they were? Idiots? Of course they knew she was a sparkling! She was their sparkmate after all!

Ironhide scowled at him. "Right! She's a sparkling! That means that she's going to have her denta coming in soon if they aren't already! It also means that she is going to chew on her servos and her pedes on top of other things! So the paint needs to be non toxic so that it does not upset her tanks when she chews it off!"

Sunny groaned irritably and started searching the can labels. "It says non toxic!"

"Let me see it!" Ironhide snatched it from his twin's servos and looked the label over quickly. After several astroseconds he nodded his approval and handed it back. "That one is safe! Check the others before you use them though."

Sunny hurriedly started searching the labels while muttering about little pain in the aft sparklings that chewed on themselves... "They all say the same exact thing! Can we start painting her now before she wakes up?"

Ironhide sat her down on the tarp with a scowl.

Sunny handed him a paintbrush and the dark purple paint that they were using as the base. He popped the top off of his own can and dipped his brush in it to get a good amount of the dark paint onto it. He turned her onto her stomach plates and started gently painting her doorlets first while Sunny did the rest of her back plating.

He gently yet firmly ran his brush over the large, well large for her small frame, doorlets, being careful not to tickle the sensitive panels and wake her. He worked his way from the left top doorlet, down to the left lower doorlet, then over to the right lower doorlet, and up to the top right doorlet, making sure that he got into the grooves so as to leave no unpainted space.

After they finished with that Sunny waited until she was dry to turn her over onto her back plates so that they could paint her front. This part took less time as they did not have to be careful of her sensitive doorlets. They finished up quickly and moved onto her helm, avoiding the small wing like antennas like their lives depended on it.

He pushed the can of purple paint away from him and took the offered can of golden paint that Sunny handed him. Popping the top off he took a clean paintbrush and dipped it into the paint while Sunny checked to make sure that she was dry first.

"She's dry. Let's do some of those tribal racing stripes that humans sometimes paint on their cars."

He shrugged and started painting what Sunny had described from the wrist up on her right side. His paintbrush swirled around her form painting golden swirls all along her arm, and around the sides of her form just barely dipping onto her chassis at the edge, and down her legs.

While he was doing that he tapped into their sparkbond and slipped into her processor. Blank white space greeted him. He would think that he was in what the humans call limbo if not for the emotions radiating through the space. She was not having a vid file...er dream. Not a visual one that she would see or remember anyways. But he could hear her making a soft humming sound.

A tug on his and Sunny's bond drew him back before he could delve in too deep. He rose back to the surface of awareness and shuttered his optics once to clear them. "What?"

Sunny raised an optic ridge at him and pointed down at the now very awake sparkling. "You woke her up. It's a good thing that her paint is already dry otherwise I would have to beat you."

He scowled but a soft coo drew his attention down to the sparkling laying between them. Bright green optics stared up at him tiredly as she reached for him. He immediately reached down and picked her up. "Sorry Lily. Didn't mean to wake you."

She cooed softly as her tanks gave a loud rumble.

"Time to refuel." And then he had to go on patrol for the rest of the day. He sighed and got up...he was not looking forward to that at all. But first things first! They had a mini sparkmate sparkling to refuel!

* * *

><p>(Jazz's POV)<p>

After the twins had gone out on patrol he was stuck, happily stuck, caring for baby girl all day. Ratchet was busy in the med bay with First Aid on Skids and Mudflap who had beaten the slag out of each other again.

Prowler was busy working on datapads for Optimus so he was not able to see to their charge at this time. His sparkmate had sent his regrets that he could not get more acquainted with her today, but he had waved him off. It was not all fun and games to be the Second in Command.

Besides! Baby girl was proving to be a lot of fun! She was constantly entertaining him when she struck up nonsensical conversations with her little purple blanket! She would sometimes try talking to him despite the fact that she could not talk. He got the gist of what her moods were when she did that anyway.

She seemed to be a relatively happy sparkling with a lot of energy. Very inquisitive and bright as well. When he had to sneak passed humans she immediately interpreted his emotions and quieted down so that they would not hear her.

And she was curious about everything and everybot! He had already shown her to Arcee where she had spent a good few kliks chirping conversationally to the purple marksman holding her. When she hadn't been doing that she was poking at the femme's face plates and helm curiously. Arcee for her part had taken it all in stride and with a soft smile.

After that he had shown her to Blaster which is where they were right now. It wasn't going like the previous encounter though.

Blaster of course was ecstatic to see the little femling... But baby girl was staring at him wide opticked and scared.

She whirred in distress and buried herself further into his chassis. It confused him for a moment until he found the source of her fear through the bond. Blaster was big...and she was tiny in comparison. That fueled the fear that her spark was feeling, the irrational fear that even she did not seem to understand. So her processor was attributing her fear to the size difference for the most part. He would bet that it had something to do with Shockwave and Soundwave.

"Baby girl Blaster ain't gonna hurt ya." He reassured her gently as he sent waves of affection over the guardian bond. His optics drifted up to Blaster's sadly. "She had a couple of run ins with Shockwave and Soundwave before she was changed. Right now she doesn't remember exactly why she's scared of you, but I would bet that her forgotten memories have something to do with it."

"S'okay Jazz! Ah understand why she woul' be afraid o' me." Blaster murmured quietly, staring at the trembling sparkling sadly. He leaned down and cooed at her gently, reaching out and rubbing her doorlets like she was a fragile piece of glass. "S'okay sparklet. Ah ain't gonna 'urt ya."

His old friend's optics suddenly brightened mischievously. "Hol' on Jazz! Ah got an idea!"

He watched, grinning when Blaster opened his chassis and pulled out his mini cassettes. Rewind, Rosanna, and Steeljaw from the looks of it.

Each of the small bots transformed in Blaster's servos and stretched. Rosanna's little pink helm turned in his direction and a wide grin pulled at her mouth components. "It's a sparkling Blaster!" She practically squealed causing Steeljaw, and Rewind to turn in his direction as well.

Rewind leaned forward tilting his white helm curiously as if he was not sure whether what he was seeing was real or not. A wide grin spread across his mouth components as he turned to Blaster. "It is a real sparkling! I have to log this into my memory drives! No I have to record this for future generations!"

Steeljaw twitched his wing like appendages and sniffed at baby girl. "She smells strange...not bad but strange." He remarked quietly.

Blaster grinned widely when baby girl peeked out at his minibots. "Put er down Jazz! Rosanna n Rewind will keep er entertained!"

He sat baby girl down on the floor at the same time that Blaster sat his cassettes down. Rosanna came bounding over to Lily and started dancing around her excitedly. "Aww she's so cute! What's her designation?"

"Lilydancer. Baby girl. Take yo' pick!" He grinned when Lilydancer clicked curiously at Rosanna.

The little pink minibot grinned excitedly and spun back around in front of Lily so that she was in plain view. She struck a diva pose just inches from baby girl. "I'm Rosanna one of Blaster's cassettes! I like to sing and dance! Annnnd!" She whipped out a mirror and looked herself over in it thoroughly before she placed it back in her subspace. "I'm the prettiest mini cassette ever!"

Rewind looked at her dryly. "Must you always be so vain? The sparkling doesn't even understand it anyways? Or did you not notice that she's a sparkling?" He stressed the words greatly. When Rosanna didn't say anything Rewind shook his helm and bounced over to Lily and knelt down in front of her. "Hello Lilydancer! I'm Rewind the Autobot archivist! I already logged you into my internal drives so that I never forget you!"

A soft coo was the response for that statement. Baby girl turned to him in confusion and chirped as she sent Rewind and Rosanna's faces to him over the guardian bond.

"Blaster 'as cassettes in 'is chassis! They're minobots! Blaster sai' dat you can play wit em!"

Optics widened in surprise before she turned back to the large red mech and pointed at him. "Ugghhh! Babababababababa!"

Blaster grinned at the same time that the rest of them chuckled at her. "She s' cute! Say hello Steeljaw!" He nudged the still silent minibot with his pede.

Steeljaw inched forward, sniffing the small sparkling curiously. "She smells good." He commented quietly.

As soon as the minibot was close enough Lily reached for him and grabbed his helm. "Mminnnhhhaaaa." Her antennas flashed a bright yellow as she tried to chew on Steeljaw's helm.

"She's attempting to eat me!"

"Awww she's SOOOOOOO CUUUUUTEEEE!" Rosanna sang loudly as she danced around the two of them.

"Mamamamamammamamamammmmmmmmmmm." By this point mouth lubricant was leaking all over Steeljaw's helm making the minibot cringe.

"Hmmm she migh' be 'ungry." He checked his chronometer to see how long it had been since the twins had left. Surprisingly almost two earth hours had passed already! "Yea she's gonna wanna refuel soon."

"Awwwww no! Jazz we just got to meet her! Let us play with her for a while!" Rosanna protested.

Stooping down he picked his charge up and cradled her safely against his chassis. "Yo' can come if ya wanna Rosey! But ole Ratchet is 'er opiluk, and if ah don't mak' sure tha' she refuels he's gonna 'ave mah aft."

"Can we go Blaster? Please? Please?" Rosanna turned pleading optics up at Blaster.

"Sure! In fact ah wanna go too! Ah will get that lil sparklin to sto' bein so scared o' meh!"

He pursed his mouth components before turning on his pedes and heading towards the med bay. Ratchet wanted to see her every few hours and he wasn't going to deny Lily her opiluk. That and he forgot the sparkling energon when he left earlier so he needed to go get more. However that brought up a new dilemma now that he had tag alongs... Ratchet was not going to be happy to have them all in his med bay.

Shrugging he continued in that direction anyways. Well who was he to deny Blaster his right to get to know baby girl? She'd warm up if she felt safer, and Ratchet was her opiluk so maybe she would feel safer with him around. Not saying anything about the fact that if somebot did something dangerous around baby girl Ratchet would probably maim them beyond repair for putting his sparkling in danger.

He grinned in amusement and pushed the door to open the med bay up. "Eyy Ratchet! Baby girl nee's her energon!"

Ratchet looked up from writing something in a datapad and scowled at him. "Why don't you have sparkling energon on you? As her one of her guardians you should have some on you at all times!" The CMO admonished him irritably. He got up and retrieved some sparkling energon from his storage cabinet, pouring it into a sparkling bottle he heated it in the small microwave on his counter.

Baby girl cooed and reached for her opi excitedly. "Oppppppooooppppppp" She sounded out happily before turning to him and sending her opiluk's face over their bond. She wanted her opi.

Luckily Ratchet came over to get her before he could even say anything. He lifted her into his arms and sat down on his stool to feed her her sparkling energon. "Hello light of my spark. Were you a good sparkling for Jazz today?" He murmured as she sucked her energon down greedily. "I see that you met Blaster and the cassettes." The last part was dripping with irritation.

"Yup she did! I even logged her into my data drive already!" Rewind informed him. "All I need are her exact details such as her weight, height, formatting to make a complete file on her!"

Ratchet grimaced at the minibot archivist. "She's a sparkling." He pointed out irritably. Lily finished her bottle at that moment so Ratchet took it and sat it on his desk.

First Aid came over and peered down at her over Ratchet's shoulder. "I can give you her measurements and physical details Rewind." He informed the minibot quietly.

Lily turned to the other medic and warbled at him. Then she turned to her opiluk and pointed at Blaster, her antennas flashing a dark orange in distress.

Ratchet raised an optic ridge as she conveyed her fear of Blaster to him. "Blaster? He's nice. There's no reason to be frightened of him light of my spark."

She chirped and fluttered her doorlets almost angrily. A blurry silver face quickly flashed across her processor passing as quickly as it had come and leaving her more afraid than she had been before.

Ratchet turned to him and raised an optic ridge. **[She's scared of Blaster because in her spark he reminds her of Soundwave?]**

**[I guess so. Blaster ain't too happy about it either.]** He shuffled closer and tried a different approach. Maybe if they could not convince her with words then he could convince her with memories? Utilizing the bond he slipped into her processor and brought up memories of his time spent with Blaster.

The two of them listening to music together, fighting together, and just hanging out. And for each memory he sent her the feelings of comfort and familiarity that he felt for Blaster. **[He ain't gonna 'urt ya baby girl. Jazz man promises.]**

Her little face scrunched up in confusion. Blaster's face flashed through her processor again.

**[He's nice. Da Jazz man an' opi Ratchet will stay clos' if ya wanna see fo' yo'self.]**

Antennas flashing a brighter orange bordering on yellow lit up as she reached for him. He picked her up and carried her back over to Blaster handing her out to the Autobot communications officer.

Her antennas flashed orange briefly when she switched holds, but when she noticed Ratchet standing close by she settled down and warbled cutely.

Blaster grinned down at her widely. "Ain'cha jus' da pretties' thing! We're gonna be grea' frien's baby girl. Ain't we?"

Bright green optics widened as she stared up at Blaster curiously. "Uuugh?" She made a small noise of confusion and pointed at him.

"Ahm Blaster baby girl! And yo'r Lilydancer! And yo's are da pretties' sparklin ah 'ave ever seen!"

She cooed up at him quietly. "Baaasssss."

"Das right baby girl! Blaster! Ahm Blaster!" Blaster grinned even wider and bounced her.

A shrill giggle fell out of her vocaliser then. She clapped her tiny servos and cooed happily up at Blaster. "Baaassssssss!"

"Bl-as-ter."

"Baaaaassssss."

While he was watching the two interact he felt a tug on his sparkbond with Prowl. **(Sup Prowler?)**

**(I'm on my way to the med bay.)**

**(Oh cool! Blaster's just gettin acquainted with baby girl! Come on in!)**

**(ETA two kliks.)** Prowl responded before the link went quiet.

"Prowler's comin ta see baby girl." He informed everybot quietly so as not to interrupt the game baby girl was playing with Blaster. It consisted of her turning and hiding her face into his chassis until Blaster looked away, then she would turn to look at him, and when he would look back she would squeal and hide her face again.

This game continued until Prowler walked into the med bay. As soon as his sparkmate walked in the door baby girl must have sensed him because she turned in his direction and held her arms out for him.

Prowler immediately took her from Blaster and settled her into the crook of his arms. "I had Wheeljack start work on making three tanks for her. One for Ratchet's quarters, one for the twins, and another for our's. There may be times when she has to stay with us so I thought it logical to have Wheeljack make the third one." Prowler explained, lips twitching up into a tiny smile when the sparkling he was holding warbled at him.

"Oh da twins are 'er sparkmates fro' when she 'as a hybrid righ'?" Blaster watched the two of them interact curiously while he asked.

"Yup! Dat means dat besides Ratchet the' are da ones dat ya gotta ask fo' anything in regard' to her." He grinned at Prowler when his mate bounced baby girl in the air. "Well yo' also gotta ask Prowler n me when dey are gone!"

Prowler turned to Blaster as soon as he was done speaking and nodded. "That is correct." His mate turned back to him and Ratchet as soon as he was done addressing Blaster. "I also instructed Wheeljack to work on some toys for her. Lennox also offered to get her some teddy bears...and other human toys. Though I am sure that she will end up breaking them."

"Until Wheeljack makes her more Cybertronian friendly toys it is the best that we can do." Ratchet commented.

"True." Prowler nodded once. He looked down when baby girl yawned and dimmed her optics down, using one servo he started gently massaging her doorlets to lull her into recharge. Her optics fully offlined after a klik as she slipped into recharge. "Are you quite busy Ratchet? If you are I can take her for the rest of the afternoon since Jazz has to meet with Optimus for the retrieval mission briefing with Bluestreak, Ironhide, and Hot Rod."

Ratchet nodded once. "Yes that will be fine Prowl. I have to finish my medical reports before the annual physical exams come up."

Ratchet stepped forward and nuzzled baby girl once before placing a gentle kiss to her helm. He stepped back and moved to gather sparkling energon and a bottle for Prowler to use. After a moment he came back over and handed several large sparkling energon cubes as well as a bottle to Prowler. "Every two hours she must refuel. If there are any problems come and find me okay?"

Prowler nodded once and subspaced the offered items. "Of course Ratchet. I will take good care of your sparkling."

"I know you will Prowl."

"I 'no yo' will too Prowler!" He joked as he made to walked passed Prowl, as he passed by he smacked his mate's aft plating playfully. "See ya Prowler! Take good care a baby girl!" With a wave he was out the door on his way to this mission briefing. Prowler could handle baby girl...and he was even more attached to her than he let on.

Baby girl was gonna know real love this time around no matter what. Even if she remembered the pain of the past, she was gonna have bonds to dull the pain. And no shortage of love either. She already had everybot on base wrapped around her little digits already. No sparkling would ever be so protected as she would be. He would make sure of it.

Cause she was his baby girl. And she always would be.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Lots of fluff! And yes there will be some Prowlsparkling moments too! Let me know how you all liked it! Oh! And we're almost at 160 reviews which is awesome! Next stop 200 reviews wooo!


	34. Chapter 34

I'm glad you guys like sparkling Lil because she is adorable as slag to write! She's going to be a sparkling for a while yet so there will be plenty more fluff and cuteness. But don't worry that this story is going to turn solely into fluff cause it's not. Drama and angst will make more appearances later. I DO NOT OWN TF!

* * *

><p>(Sides POV)<p>

Several days had passed since Lil had been turned into a sparkling. By now everybot on base knew that they had a sparkling on base, even Galloway and the human soldiers. Of course Galloway had been outraged when Ironhide had 'brought back a sparkling' but after Optimus reassured him that there would be no more surprise sparklings landing he got over it. Or as much as he could anyways.

Not that anybot on base would allow him to harm or even touch Lil. Pit he'd be dead in half an astrosecond if he tried it! Everybot on base was fiercely protective of her because she was the last sparkling. Not only that, but she was the only femme online that could get sparked by interface. So she was almost as valuable as the Allspark itself. As long as they had her they could try and repopulate.

A soft coo from his berthside had him pausing Destiny, turning towards the sound he caught sight of his sparkmate staring at him from inside her tank. The clear untainted glass did nothing to hide them from each other, so he clearly saw her antennas flash a bright excited blue.

Heaving himself off of the couch he made his way over to her tank and lifted her out of it. "Did you have a good recharge last night Lily?" She chirped at him and sent him a fuzzy picture of Sunny's face. "Sunny had to go to the communications deck for comm duty but he'll be back soon don't worry." He reassured her as he went about making her a bottle of energon.

Excited green optics stared up at him, or more specifically at the bottle in his servo. She reached for it and flew into a series of soft sparkling chatter. _Click. Warble. Click. Click. Whirr. Click. Coo._

Grinning widely, he brought the nozzle to her mouth and started refueling her. The more time went by, the more he grew used to his new role in her life. The only thing that he could hope for was that she was not confused about their bond when she hit mating age again...because that would make their entire existence a living pit if she was put off from acting as mates did because she viewed them as...older brothers or something.

He could deal with her cuteness and the wait, he mused as his optics stayed locked on her little mouth components as they suckled the energon into her oral cavity. All of it was ok, so long as she understood exactly what she was to them when the time came.

She finished her bottle quickly and pushed it away from her mouth. "Saaiiiiiii."

He grinned at her attempt to talk. In the last few days she had seemingly grown more mentally than physically, though the physical growth was there as well. She was now trying to talk actively, though she could not say any actual words yet. Mostly what he had caught was her trying to say his designation or Sunny, and just as often he was sure that she attempted to say opi. So far all of her attempts were a no go though. It was still cute to watch though.

"Say Sides! Sides!"

She pursed her mouth components and furrowed her optic ridges. "Saiiiiii."

"Sides. Sidesssss."

Her little antennas flashed an irritated orange. "Saaaaaiiiinnnnnsss."

He snickered at her little pouting face. "Close enough I guess." His laughter was cut off when he received a comm on his HUD. With a sigh he opened it and tapped into the link.

**'Hey Hatchet! What's going on? Did you want to see Lil? I thought you were busy doing physicals today?'**

**'I am Sideswipe. However...you and your brother did not show up at your appointed time today...'**

He gulped at the threatening tone and looked around wildly for a place to hide. **'Uhhh I have Lil with me and I can't leave her! And umm she doesn't really like the med bay remember?'** So he was scrambling for any excuse to not have to go, and most of it was complete slag! But hey! If it got him out of having his aft pipe examined he was cool with lying.

**'Sideswipe I will find you. All I have to do is follow my sparkling's spark signature. DO NOT TEST ME. Get your aft down to the med bay and bring your twin. If I have to come and find you...your aftpipe exam will be much worse.'** With that the comm link was cut off.

His energon was running cold...gulping he practically ran out the door towards the comm deck. If he had to get his aftpipe examined then Sunny had to do it too!

A bright flash of Sunny's face flashed through his bond to the tiny sparkling in his arms. She cooed happily and fluttered her doorlets against his arm repeatedly. "Unnnnnnmmmmm."

"That's right! We're going to find Sunny so that he can get his aft examined!" Turning a corner he skidded into the comm deck where Sunny was sitting glaring at a monitor like he wanted to murder it. "Sunny we gotta go to the med bay for our physicals." He huffed out.

His twin turned to him with the same glare that he had been directing at the comm monitor. "What? You came all the way here to tell me to go and get tormented by Ratchet? No thanks. I'd rather not get an aft probe stuck up my aftpipe again."

When Sunny turned back to the monitor he scowled, which made the sparkling he was holding whirr sadly. If Sunny wanted to be difficult...he could face the wrath of Sideswipe the master prankster! Reaching into his subspace he grabbed several dark brown paint bombs.

A happy coo met his audio receptors as a flash of Sunny passed through their bond again.

That of course made Sunny spin around to look at her...at the same time that he chucked the paint bombs at what was supposed to be his exposed back plates. Instead the murky brown paint splattered against his golden twin's face plates and chassis saturating it.

It was quiet, deathly quiet, the only sound being the paint falling to the floor in large drips. A loud tinkering giggle from the sparkling he was holding broke the silence in the room.

Lily giggled loudly, clapping her little servos, antennas flashing a bright ecstatic yellow. Sunny's face dripping with paint flashed through her processor making her happiness spike even higher. She pointed at him and waved her arms from side to side. "Uuunnnnnnn uunnnnnnnnnnn!"

Sunny snapped out of whatever stupor he was in and glared at him after he had wiped the paint from his optics. "Put Red down so that I can murder you without hurting her." He hissed like an irate cybercat.

With a grin he flipped himself back around and took off out of the comm deck. "Catch me if you can Sunshine!" He called back as he slid gracefully around a corner making Lily squeal in delight with how fast he was going. The best part was that he could hear Sunny pounding along after him! Slagger was so slagged about his paint that he would not even care that he was being led to the med bay.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

"Fine I won't! You don't exactly look like sunshine anymore anyways! More like...you look like a pathetic rustbucket!" He egged his brother on as he screeched around another corner into the corridor where the med bay was. Tires screeching against the concrete, he made a mad dash for the med bay door when his audio receptors picked up the sounds of Sunny's pedes pounding around the corner.

Slamming his servo down on the panel he counted the astroseconds down while he waited impatiently for the door to slide open enough that he could squeeze through it. All while listening to Sunny tearing down the corridor after him.

As soon as there was ample room to squeeze through he was sliding between the heavy metal doors a split astrosecond before Sunny caught him. Ratchet and First Aid looked up in surprise when he practically fell into the room, Blaster who was on the berth by Ratchet grinned when Sunny pounced on him before he could get up.

"AGH! Sunny I have Lily!" He screeched like a dying animal when his twin punched him in the back of the helm.

"I told you to put her down anyways!" Sunny roared and punched him again. Hard. "You idiotic slagger! You ruined my paint you piece of slag! I'll beat your aft!" Punch. Punch. Punch!

Bringing Lily in close to his stomach plates he curled his body around her protectively until Blaster and First Aid managed to pull Sunny off of him. He peeked around the room as soon as the assault stopped and found the two mechs forcing Sunny onto the free medical berth.

"LET ME GO RIGHT FRAGGING NOW! I'LL KILL HIM FOR RUINING MY PAINT!"

Ratchet scowled. "Flip him over onto his stomach plates please." As soon as First Aid and Blaster had Sunny pinned on his stomach plates Ratchet flipped a switch and magnetized him to the berth. The CMO walked around the berth and carefully removed Sunny's aft plating before sitting it down on a table beside the berth. "Sunstreaker you could have hurt my sparkling with your idiocy..." With a wide sadistic grin the green mech reached over and grabbed the aft probe. "So this is going to hurt more than it was originally meant to."

A loud angry sounding roar shook the room when Ratchet shoved the probe up Sunny's aftpipe none too gently. "MY AFT! RATCHET YOU SLAGGING AFTHOLE!"

"Maybe next time you are tempted to do something stupid you will think it through first." Ratchet sniffed disdainfully and adjusted the probe.

All mirth and laughter came screeching to an end with just a few uttered words.

"My aft! My aft!" Lily giggled and clapped her servos happily. "Unnn my aft!"

It was silent for a moment before he busted out laughing along with Blaster. "Oh my Primus! You are so dead Sunny!" He brought his sparkmate to his face and nuzzled her affectionately. "Little Lily you are a naughty sparkling! You're not supposed to say that word!" He admonished her...only to burst out laughing again when she tilted her helm curiously and chirped.

Sunny suddenly screeched in a very unSunny like way because of something that Ratchet did making everybot look over to where Ratchet was now beating him in the helm with a wrench rather violently. While the probe was still lodged in his...yeah.

"HOW DARE YOU TEACH MY SPARKLING HOW TO CURSE YOU FRAGGING SLAGGER! HER FIRST WORD SHOULD HAVE BEEN OPILUK NOT AFT!" The CMO roared angrily with each swing of his wrench into Sunny's poor dented helm.

"Well technically her first word was my." First Aid interjected quietly, looking like he might burst out laughing as well. The red and white mech immediately shut his mouth when Ratchet turned to him and raised his wrench to strike him down. "Continue."

Ratchet went to swing at Sunny's helm again when a soft coo interrupted him.

"Opi!" Lily chirped, servos held out for her opiluk expectantly. "Opi'uck!"

The CMO was off the berth so fast that it caused everybot to jump in surprise...besides Sunny who was barely conscious at this point. He knelt down in front of him and reached out for his sparkling pulling her into his protective embrace. "Say it again sweetling. Say opiluk!"

Tiny mouth components struggled for a moment to sound the word out again. "Opi'uck! Opi!" She chirped and looked immensely proud of herself when her opiluk beamed at her.

"Very good my sparklet!" Ratchet kissed her little helm affectionately making her coo and purr. "My little sparklet." He cooed to her, rocking her back and forth. "The light of my spark."

And his sparkmate was drinking the affection and praise up like he and Sunny drank high grade. A bright happy smile was pulling at her mouth plates and her antennas were shining a deep pretty pink. "Opi! Opi! My aft!" She chanted with a giggle.

Ratchet's smile fell slightly. "Do not say aft!" He admonished her sternly. "It's a bad word!"

Little green optics widened innocently at her opiluk. "Aft? Aft?"

Ratchet shook his head and scowled while sending her a stern reprimand over the bond to let her know that he was displeased. "No! Do not say that word!" He narrowed his optic ridges at her and waited for her to say it again so that he could repeat the reprimand.

Her optics only widened further as her antennas flashed a curious yellow. "Fwag?" She sounded out curiously.

He snorted when Ratchet glared death at Sunny. "Umm Hatchet you were the one that said that word." The glare was instantly turned in his direction for his input. He backed off and put his servos up defensively, wisely choosing not to comment again.

Ratchet turned back to Lily and pointed a digit at her. "No! Do not say that word either! It's bad! Pretty femmes don't say words like that!"

Lily pouted and rolled onto her back plates so that she could stuff her pede into her mouth and chew on it. She cooed around the tip of her pede and kicked her other pede distractedly. "Aft!" She chanted again as she rolled slightly to the side. "Fwag! Aft! Opi! Opi'uck!"

Ratchet only scowled deeper and swiftly tapped her little aft firmly making her squeal. "No. You do not say those words!"

Lily sniffled and kicked her feet out in response as she began to cry. She turned to him and held her servos out for him to pick her up. "Saaaaaiiiii! Saaaaaiiiii! Opi! Aft!" Big fat energon tears slid down over her pristine silver face plates.

Really, he would take her if Ratchet didn't look at him like he was going to murder him if he took a step closer. He smiled sadly at Lily and sent her his apologies over their sparkbond. **{Sorry sweetspark. Your opiluck will kick my af-bottom!}**

She kicked her legs and cried louder, turning in Sunny's direction and holding her servos out for him instead. "Unnnnnnnn! Unnnnnyyyyyy!" She cried.

Sunny lazily turned his helm towards her and raised an optic ridge. "Is she saying my designation?" A curious smile pulled at his normally cold brother's mouth components. He frowned suddenly and shifted as much as he could on the berth. "Sorry baby. If I could get you I would, but your opiluk has me magnetized to the berth."

In response her cries only grew louder in volume until they reached a defeaning decibel. "Opi! Opi! Weannnnnnn! Azz!" Her antennas flashed a bright angry red, doorlets flapping angrily against Ratchet's servo rapidly. "Saaaaaaiiiiii! Waaaaaah! Unnnnny!"

Ratchet's stern face suddenly melted a split astrosecond before he relented and hugged her against his chassis. "I'm sorry Lilydancer. Opi is sorry that he spanked you! Please calm down and stop crying now." He rocked her from side to side slowly. While he was doing that he turned to First Aid over his shoulder and looked from him to Sunny pointedly. "Finish his exam and start on Sideswipe's! I want them out of my med bay as soon as possible."

First Aid nodded and gently went about scanning, and finishing the exam to make sure that Sunny's aft pipe was unobstructed...even if he would bet that after the way Ratchet shoved that probe into it it would never be obstructed again.

Sunny turned to glare at him harshly. **'You are so dead!'**

He opened his mouth to comment that at least he hadn't had a painfully intimate encounter with the aft probe, but the door to the med bay opened before he could. Spinning around he caught sight of Bluestreak walking into the room with Annie situated on his shoulder.

The blue gunner's optics landed on Lily and brightened. "Oh she's so cute! Isn't she Annie? I only got to see her once for just a few kliks but I've been wanting to see her again since! Her doorwings are so cute! Look at how big they are! Prowl said that he was going to have Smokey and I help teach her about Praxian customs when she was old enough! She's going to be spending a lot of tie with the Praxian brothers while she grows up! Smokey is super excited about it too! So is Prowl but he hides it pretty well! Oh! Since we're his brothers I wonder if we have a small bond with her as well since he does?!"

Annie shrugged. "Maybe. You can help teach her how to talk that's for sure Blue!"

Confusion welled up inside him...and dread. Please for the love of Primus do not let Lily have a bond with Bluestreak through Prowl! Please! He pushed the thoughts aside and turned to take Lily from Ratchet now that she had calmed down. "What kind of customs are you going to teach her?" He asked after he settled her back down in his arms.

Blue smiled and waved at her whilst twitching his doorwings in a greeting. "Well we're going to teach her about doorwing language! And we're going to teach her about Praxian courting rituals! Oh and the history of Praxus too! And mating habits! Things that she might need to know when she gets older!"

"But she already has mates." He pointed out in a deadly quiet tone. In his processor she didn't need to know how to court or be courted, because she was already their's as soon as she was of mating age. Pit she was their's right now! She just wasn't old enough for a sexual relationship like a normal mate relationship.

Blue looked slightly taken back by his attitude for a moment, looking like he was thinking over what he had said for what had angered him. His optics suddenly brightened in understanding an astrosecond before he held his servos up defensively. "Oh I didn't mean it like that! You see Prowl wants to make sure that she understands how to show her interest in you when she gets older, as well as how to interpret your interest in her! He said that way you can know for sure when she's ready to merge with you again! So I'm going to teach her all about shiny gifts! That way she can give them to you when she's interested in becoming your mates, real mates that is!" Bluestreak rambled on.

"Shiny things?" His knowledge on Praxian customs was very...minimal. Now he guessed that he had a legitimate reason to study up on them since his mate was of Praxian build and programming. "What's that about?"

Bluestreak's optics brightened happily. "Oh shiny things! When a Praxian is interested in courting or being courted by another bot they give them five shiny objects to choose from! If the mech or femme that was offered the shiny accepts it, it means that they reciprocate the interest! So Prowl wanted to teach her about that when she gets older so that when she is ready she can use this particular courting ritual to show that she is ready to become your mate formally again."

Ok so shiny things were good! He would keep that logged into his processor for when she got older. "So what else do we need to know about her Praxian coding?"

At that moment Lily reached out for Bluestreak so he handed her over to the blue gunner after giving him a warning look.

"Hello little angelwing!" Bluestreak greeted quietly with a soft happy smile playing at his mouth components. "You are such a beautiful sparkling aren't you? It's a good thing that you are already mated huh? Cause if you weren't mechs would be all over you when you got older! And then we'd all have to beat them back to keep them away from you! But you don't need to worry about that because you have two mates! And when you're old enough I can help you make them shinies! Doesn't that sound fun? And I can teach you all about door language see?" For show Bluestreak twitched his wings up into a sharp V shape before fluttering them down to his sides. "Twitch them once to say hello!"

Lily cooed softly and twitched her little doorlets minutely.

"God job angelwing!"

He was so engrossed in watching the two Praxians interact that he was surprised when he was grabbed and led over to the other medical berth by First Aid. Unlike Sunny he was not magnetized down, nor was he violated with the probe forcefully.

"Awww she's so cute! I'm gonna call her Lilywing!" Annie exclaimed as she hopped down onto Blue's servo so that she could play with Lily.

Lily twitched her doorlets once in a greeting like Bluestreak her showed her. "Mmmmm Buuuuussssseeeek."

A small smile pulled at the sides of his mouth components...Lily was going to be a happy sparkling! She was not going to be hurt by those that should have protected her ever again. No. Not ever!

* * *

><p>(Prowl POV-First time ever writing it so bare with me!)<p>

Sparklings. The embodiment of the continuation of their race. Sparklings meant a future, they meant hope for a tomorrow. They required constant care and protection. And now there was only one left. One sparkling. One means of a future for their race.

Ever since she had come to them reborn as a sparkling his logic center had been working overdrive. The base needed to be sparkling proofed, bots needed to be informed of proper conductive behavior to utilize when around a young impressionable sparkling. Rules needed to be enforced more strictly to show Lilydancer proper behavior and etiquette for a young femme bot.

Defenses needed to be reinforced in case of another Decepticon attack. Patrols needed to be stepped up to ensure that con activity was kept far away from the hope for their race. He had already logged all of these details into his data center, as well as making a work list and handing it out to every able bodied bot and human.

It had only been several days since she had come and already over fifty percent of the modifications to the base were taken care of. Patrols had been stepped up effectively, and no con activity had been reported since. Now all they needed was Redalert to watch the security cameras to make him feel roughly ninety eight percent sure that everything was safe.

There was always a margin for failure no matter how much he planned in advance, variables like fate and luck that could not be accurately input into his plans. Because he did not work with fate, only facts, only real solid variables. And yet...fate had brought them a way to continue their race. Not just one, but several. The hybrid femmes needed to be protected for that very reason for the simple fact that, as beings with sparks, they would seek out other beings with sparks. Therefore he estimated that at some point the femmes would attach themselves to somebot on base, thus creating more sparklings. It was the only logical outcome seeing as how humans died much too fast to pursue a full lasting bond with them.

As it stood right now his brother was already showing interest in one of the twin femmes. His logic center would have shorted out at the mere thought of having her bonded to him through his brother...it almost had actually. Only a quick intervention from his sparkmate had saved him from glitching when he had found out that Bluestreak was pursuing the femme.

But after he checked Bluestreak's medical files and deduced that his chances of impregnating the femme were quite high, he relented and resigned himself to having her as an impromptu bonded. If it made Bluestreak happy and helped repopulate their race...he could deal with any subsequent glitches that she caused him to go through.

However thoughts of other sparklings would have to wait...because the sparkling in his hold was coming out of recharge prompting him to reach into his sparkling hold and remove her from the safe depths. His lip components twitched up in a tiny smile, spark pulsing lightly in happiness when she cooed at him happily and pushed her happiness at his very essence.

"Hello littlespark." He greeted her quietly as he went about retrieving sparkling energon from subspace so that he could feed her. His spark pulsed again sending wisps of warmth coursing through his frame when she latched onto her bottle greedily.

He fed her in silence, basking in the warmth that usually only came from spending time with Jazz. There was just something about doing something as simple as holding a real living sparkling that made even him want to smile openly. Of course he did not because that would be undignified, but here in the safety of his office it was ok to do so. It was not like she could tell anybot about his less than strict and stoic demeanor so he had no reason to act like he normally did.

She finished her bottle quickly prompting him to sit it on the top of his desk. He retrieved her blanket and a small teddy bear that Lennox had procured for her before sitting her into a sparkling sized play pen atop his desk that was filled with various sparkling toys. A soft coo escaped her vocaliser as she reached out and picked up a small rubber toy and squeezed it, squealing when it made a sharp squeaking sound.

He however cringed at the loud abrupt noise. How was he supposed to work with that obnoxious sound nearly tearing his audio receptors up with the shrillness of it? He deliberated the chances of her crying if he took it from her, factoring in what he knew about sparklings into his battle computer, grimacing again when she squeezed the toy and made that infernal noise again.

The grimace turned into a full out frown when his battle computer concluded that the chances of her crying if he took the toy away were eighty percent. Did he dare chance the twenty percent chance to quiet the noise?

**(Tak' da to' n give 'er somethin' else Prowler.)** Jazz informed him over their sparkbond.

**(I...will attempt it.)** He relented and snatched the toy from her, hastily shoving another less noisy toy in her servos before she had a chance to miss the one that he had taken from her. Subspacing the infernal squeaker toy, he waited patiently for her to throw a fit of some sort.

Instead she just warbled and flopped down onto her stomach plates to play with the small cube that he had given her. As soon as she did that however...soft bell like sounds started drifting out of it.

His optic ridge twitched...were all toys meant to annoy him?

**(Prowler...giv' 'er a doll or some'in!)** Jazz piped in exasperatedly.

Frowning in trepidation, his logic center told him that the chances of her crying were still very high if he took her toy away again...he reached out and swiftly took the toy from her before replacing it with a small drone doll that Wheeljack had made for her.

Unlike last time however she did not immediately switch her attention to the new toy, she instead looked at him with big energon tears welling up in her optics. She cooed sadly and reached out for her bell toy expectantly.

He twitched his doorwings and shook his helm no. "I need to work littlespark. Play with a different toy that does not make so much noise."

The tears spilled from her optics, mouth components pulling together a split astrosecond before she released a loud ringing wail.

It made him jerk in surprise at how loud it was, almost making him glitch because of how unexpected the sheer volume was. Luckily Jazz saved him from glitching before he could even start by sending him calming waves over their bond. **(Relax Prowler. Jus' pick er up n cuddle 'er. If dat don' work give 'er back da bell toy.)**

**(But Jazz I need to finish this datapad for Optimus!)**

Jazz sighed over the bond and spoke up in an even more exasperated voice. **(Yo' ain't gonna get any wor' don' like dat! Try doin' what ah said! Yo' just gotta hang in dere for a lil while longa Prowler. I'll be bac' soon!)**

The bond went silent. He turned back to the still crying sparkling who was kicking and flailing against the floor of her play pen angrily and picked her up. She released another loud wail, sounding almost pained with how loud and shrill it was.

"Relax littlespark." He soothed her in a quiet murmur while rocking her from side to side. A thought flitted through his battle computer prompting him to grab her little fuzzy blanket and wrap her in it.

Her cries died down slightly at the addition of her soft fuzzy blanket. She sniffled, cooing up at him sadly and reaching for her bell toy.

With a soft sigh, even he could not deny a face that cute...he handed it back to her. Of course he slightly regretted it when not even half an astrosecond later that infernal tinkering sound started up again. But her soft giggles and coos made up for the momentary frustration he felt. A first for him...he had never been happy to be denied his quiet workplace solitude.

For a moment he almost expected to have Jazz come in to prevent him from glitching, but his logic center did not start up that familiar angry sizzling as the circuits started frying themselves. In fact nothing happened. He was completely fine when something...unexpected had happened.

It was times like these that...he wished that he and Jazz could have a sparkling. Neither of them had carrier coding though so it was impossible, and even if one of them had it, neither of them had old style reproductive systems. They could not spark solely by interface.

The sparkling he was holding suddenly stopped playing with her toy as if she had heard what he was thinking. She looked up at him, antennas flashing a dark sorrowful blue. A soft sad chirp escaped her vocaliser as she sent her confusion over their guardian bond.

Utilizing the guardian bond he sent back calming reassurances that everything was well. "It is nothing littlespark."

Another sad chirp followed by a flash of her wing like antennas, the bond shifted minutely showing him his own face. How she saw it, sadness evident in both the set of his plates, and in his optics. Confusion accompanied the picture.

"Jazz and I cannot have our own sparklings." He told her quietly. His spark hurt, but he tried not to let his emotions flood their bond in the hopes that her sensory panels weren't active enough to sense it yet.

Her antennas flashed again, doorlets twitching in uncoordinated sparkling fluttering. There was a sense of impatience when she sent his face back over the bond again. "Poooooowwwww."

A familiar voice interrupted their quiet conversation before he could reassure her that things were ok again. "He's jus' sore cuz we can' ave sparklins baby girl. But is ok tho' cuz we got yo'!" Jazz pushed off from the door frame and sauntered across the room towards his desk. He held out his servos for Lilydancer as soon as he was close enough, cradling her into his arms when she was switched from him to Jazz. "S'okay baby girl. Yo' like our own sparklin! We lov' ya lik' yo' our own!"

Lilydancer only chirped once as if to confirm that they were really ok.

"We good baby girl! Prowler's jus' bein' too serious 'gain."

Seeing Jazz holding her made him smile, a real wide smile. Some part of him would always want a sparkling that was their's, truly their's, but as long as he could see his sparkmate looking this happy while holding a sparkling, even one that was not their's, he would be happy. In fact he could not remember the last time he had ever felt so happy. Nor could he remember if he had ever smiled like this.

He schooled his facial features when Jazz turned back to him with a grin...it would not do to have his sparkmate take pictures and send them to the other bots on base. "Is she well now?"

"Yup! She jus' wanted ta see da Jazz man!" His sparkmate started making faces at the little femme causing her to giggle.

Yes. So long as they had their duty to her there would be light in their lives from now on. Jazz would be deliriously happy, and by association so would he. And the little sparkling smiling up at Jazz was the stepping stone to all of that, a happy hopeful future.

The first hopeful future that he had calculated in a long time.

* * *

><p>(Sunny POV)<p>

After picking their sparkmate up from Prowl and Jazz they had taken her to the main hangar so that Bee could see her. The yellow scout had been absent for the whole mess of her being taken, and subsequently turned into a sparkling. He had practically begged to see her seeing as how he had never seen another sparkling.

Bee was one of the few bots that he could tolerate, so he had agreed to the yellow mech's request. Or it would be more accurate to say that Sides had agreed before he could refuse. For that he may or may not have smashed his helm in from the back.

Anyways Bee was waiting impatiently for them in the hangar alongside Sam and Mikeala. As soon as the scout's optics fell on him, or more specifically the sparkling in his arms he came sprinting over to them. "So...beautiful! Can...I hold...her?"

"Just don't drop her!" He warned as he handed her over to the smaller mech.

Bee cradled her against his chassis as they stared each other down. Red stared at him with wide optics...and Bee stared back with bright happy optics, looking for all the world like this was the best thing that had ever happened in the world...universe maybe. "Aren't...you...a...beauty?" Bee played a series of clips from his radio.

His sparkmate squirmed and waved her arms around at Bee. "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." She copied the radio static sound.

"Awwww she's adorable!" Mikeala gushed.

"Yeah she is." Sam admitted quietly.

Bee looked like he had not even heard them for all the stillness radiating from his frame. His optics hadn't strayed from her even in the slightest as a wide grin split his mouth components from one side of his face to the other. "So...cute...is...she...mobile?"

"No. She can scoot and roll around if she wants to. But she can't crawl or walk yet." Sides answered his question.

Bee tilted his helm and pointed at her door wings. "Two...sets...?" His own door wings twitched once, making Red twitch her own doorlets in response. "Awww! So...smart! She...talks...yet?"

"A little. She said her first word today actually...followed by a few other choice words." He grumbled tiredly. This was definitely not what he wanted to spend his afternoon doing... Sides smacked him on the back of the helm and he swung on him angrily. "What was that for you fra-" A servo was clamped over his mouth before he could continue that sentence.

Sides frowned at him sternly. "Watch your language Sunny! Or did you need to be reminded of what Ratchet did when she said her first words?"

"Shut up." He slapped his twin's servo away.

Sides hummed and turned back to Bee. "She swore earlier...her first words were my A.F.T."

Bee spluttered and laughed at the same time that his charges did. "Hatchet...must have...been...happy!? Anything...else?"

Sides grinned. "Oh she said F.R.A.G. as well. And she says opi, and opiluk."

As soon as his twin said the last two words Red chirped. "Opi! Opi'uck!" She repeated prompting everybot to look down, or up in the humans cases, at her. "Fwag! Aft! My aft! Poooooowwwwwwww!"

Sam snorted. "Someone sure has a colorful vocabulary for only being like a baby! I wonder who has been teaching her Sideswipe?! Hmmm?"

Sides looked affronted. "I will have you know that Sunny was the one that-"

"Unnnnnnnnyyyyy!"

"Stop that Lily! Sides is trying to talk now!"

"Saaaaaiiiiiiis!"

He couldn't resist the urge to smirk at her repetition of whatever Sides was saying. "Forget it Sides. Now that she's talking she's never going to stop...just look at what happened to you and Bluestreak."

"Buuuuuueeeekkk!" She chanted happily.

"So she just repeats whatever she hears?" Mikeala smiled and gestured for Bee to bring Red down to her level. As soon as she was optic level Mikeala leaned over her and grinned. "I'm Mikeala! Mi-kea-la!"

"Mikaaa!"

Mikeala laughed and pointed at Bee. "That's Bumblebee! Can you say Bee?"

Red looked up at Bee and pointed at him. "Beeeeeeee!"

Bee looked like he had just beaten Smokey in a bet! He hadn't thought it possible for the scout to look any happier than he had when he had first held her. But now Bee was grinning even wider...if that was possible.

"She...can say...my...name!" Bee played from his stereo. "Good job! Now...say...Sam!"

"Aaammmm."

"Hey how come she says Sides but not Sam!?" Sam piped up pouting. He yelped when Mikeala smacked him on the back of the head angrily. "Hey! What was that for?"

"For being rude Sam! She's just a little baby!"

**'Can we go now?'** He asked over the bond. If he had to stay here and watch the language lesson any longer he was going to glitch. No he was going to probably beat Sides's helm in.

**'No. Bee came all the way here to see her Sunny! Besides it won't kill you to be social for one day!'**

"But technically she's not a baby! She was a full grown-" Sam was cut off when Bee shot him a warning look. "What?! Is she technically a baby? Even mentally? That's gotta be a real mind fuck!"

"Fuck!" Red repeated while clapping.

Mikeala whirled on Sam and slapped him again. "Sam watch your langauge around the baby! You are such a bad influence on her! We are never having kids!"

Sam looked like a petro hound that had just been kicked. "But Mikealaaaaa." He whined looking absolutely pathetic. "I didn't think she would repeat that! Cut me some slack babe!"

"Mikkkkaaaa! Bae! Fuck!"

**'Oh great! Now we have to explain her new vocabulary to Ratchet. Good idea Sides! Really! He's beating your helm in this time not mine!'**

Sides pursed his lips and nodded once. **'That's uhhh fair. But Ratchet doesn't have to know about this meeting. Right?'**

His processor flashed to this morning when he had been violated with the aft probe...oh yes Ratchet did have to know about this meeting...and it was all Sides's fault. He would get his revenge for his still sore aft pipe! **'Sure I guess. Not like we're going to him anytime today right?'**

**'No.'**

He was grinning on the inside as he leaned down and scolded Red. "No Red! Bad! Don't say that word!" And he recorded every bit of it! Then he turned to Sides and smacked him over the back of the helm. "See Sides? I told you that bringing her to see Bee and his humans was a bad idea! Look at the word that she picked up!" He turned back to Red at the same time that she chirped.

"Fuck! Fuck!"

"No! Bad baby!" Mikeala scolded her. "Do not say that word! Look at what you did Sam!" She glared at the pouting form of her male counterpart.

Sam shrugged as if to say whatever. Bee smacked him over the head for his nonchalance. "Bad...influence...my friend!"

Yup he now had enough evidence to sign Sides's offlining warrant. He broke the vid file down and attached it to a comm file, with one last smug look at Sides, who was looking at Bee intently, he sent it to Ratchet.

Thanks to the bond that they had with the medic through their sparkmate, he had a perfect indicator of when the CMO got the vid file. A sudden flash of anger and murderous thoughts wafted over the small bond between them, fading quickly enough that Red did not have time to be really affected by it.

Ohh but Sides felt it! The terror flowing through their spark bond clued him into that. But before Sides even had a chance to run angry pedes were pounding into the hangar.

"SIDESWIPE! SAM!" Ratchet roared angrily as he came barreling into the hangar.

Sides whipped around and gave him a deer in the headlights look. "Wha-?! Sam did it not me!"

With a primal roar Ratchet whipped out a huge wrench and threw it like a bullet at his twin's helm.

A sickening clang rang out throughout the room as it collided so hard that it took Sides off his pedes. His brother slammed into the floor a good ten feet behind Bee, skidding across the cement with a shower of sparks until he came to a stop near the hangar door.

He raised an optic ridge as he calculated the distance that Sides had flown...he was pretty sure that it was a new record for Hatchet. Thirty feet? And he was pretty sure that he had knocked Sides clean into stasis! Slagger deserved it after getting his aft violated!

"SAM!" Ratchet's roar brought his attention back to the CMO who was now stalking over towards Bee's charge with death brewing in his optics. Green servos snatched the human up when he tried to hide behind Bee, and brought him to face level with the scowling medic.

"Hey R-rat-chet!" Sam stammered. "Wh-what's wr-ong?"

"You! You taught my sparkling a curse word! A human curse word!"

Sam whimpered, looking over at Bee for help, the scout just shrugged and turned back to the sparkling he was holding. "Ratchet it was an accident! I didn't know that she could pronounce so many letters and sounds! And I was talking to Mikeala and the others and ummm, I said the F word." Sam's optics shot down to Red warily before they drifted back up to Ratchet's. "And well she repeated it. I'm really sorry!"

Ratchet vented heavily, frame shaking with rage. "I will rewire you-no! I will surgically alter you into a femme is you ever talk like that in front of my sparkling again! Do you understand me Sam? DO YOU?!"

"Y-yes! Yes I understand!" Sam squeaked.

"Good." Ratchet sat him back down and spun on him angrily. "And you!"

What the frag did he do?! "What did I do Ratchet? I told Sides not to do this today!" He backed up just slightly when Ratchet took a threatening step towards him. If he got wrenched he was going to dish out his own personal punishment on Sides! Beating his twin's helm in sounded like a good idea most of the time anyways!

"You let her swear!" Ratchet roared.

"But I can-" A sharp impact hit the front of his helm sending seering pain down through his face plates. Why the frag was he getting wrenched?! Sides was the one who caused this mess! He stumbled slightly but caught himself before he fell. He glared at Ratchet and rubbed his newest dent gingerly. Pit that hurt! "The heck was that for?! I can't control what she says Ratchet!"

"You can make sure that she is not exposed to vulgar language Sunstreaker!" Ratchet argued angrily. He spun around and snatched Red from Bee, belting Bee with a wrench when the yellow scout whined pitifully. He shoved her into his sparkling hold and spun around to stalk out of the room.

"Awww...I...didn't...even...get to...have fun!" Bee whined, doorwings drooping sadly.

He growled and went to rouse his twin from stasis...Sunstreaker way. It consisted of him coming up beside his down brother and kicking him in the helm harshly.

But it was effective! Sides came back online with a yelp of pain. "THE FRAG WAS THAT SLAG FOR?! SAM WAS THE ONE THAT TAUGHT HER THE WORD FUCK!" Sides shouted as he rubbed his dented helm gently. "Ahhh that hurts! Slagging Hatchet!"

"Idiot! This is all your fault!"

Sides looked up at him in confusion briefly, before it morphed to anger. "You were the one that sent him a vid file of what happened in an attempt to get me in trouble! Now look at who got fragged over!"

He vented heavily and kicked his brother again, before he too spun around and stalked out of the hangar. Idiots! All of them were idiots!

Who would have thought that raising a sparkling would be such a dangerous job?!

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><p>R&amp;R! Poor Sunny! Poor Sides! Lol Lily's new vocab though! For a while she won't be showing a lot of physical growth, but her vocabulary and mental state are going to develop at a pretty good rate. You'll see what I mean later! Read! Review! Until next time!<p> 


	35. Chapter 35

Lol sparkling Lilah is so fragging cute! And I hope that I wrote Prowl's POV ok seeing as how I've never wrote him in first person before. Anyways the poll for sparkling names, mechling names, is still going so check it and vote! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>Panicked chirps echoed off of the walls. Desperate whirrs and clicks. The sound of a sparkling in distress.<p>

A body tied down and forced to watch, completely horrified, as the small mass was pulled from their insides. Blood mixed with energon splattered around the room, onto the medical berth the carrier was laying on.

Through their optics, they watched weak and exhausted as their sparkling was placed on a near by table and tied down with restraints.

A sharp ringing, panicked chirp fell from the sparkling's vocaliser. Panicked red optics, young and innocent met their carrier's...

**_Help._**

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><p>(Sides's POV)<p>

His body shot up from the berth, screeching out of the bad vid file that had been plaguing his processors. Only he knew that it was not his vid file that he was seeing! And that knowledge had him flying up off the berth before he had even completely stabilized his systems from such a horrible vid file.

He raced over to the tank that housed his sparkmate, audio receptors picking up her terrified chirps and cries all the way across the room. Tearing the dense clear glass open, he pulled the crying sparkling from the confines of her tank and cradled her. **{Shhh Lily! It's ok! Your sparkmate is here! Shhhhh!}**

The small sparkling was a mess. Energon tears had stained her face plates a dark blue. Her antennas were flashing a dark rolling black with wisps of bright angry red intermingled into it. She was wailing, loud, shrill, and completely terrified. Though now that she was awake she seemed not to know what had scared her so much.

He heard a commotion behind him, two actually, what must have been Sunny falling off the berth, and the door to their room opening so that several sets of pedes could rush in. The next thing he knew he and Lil were surrounded by Sunny, Ratchet, Prowl, and Jazz. All of who looked completely distraught.

Ratchet stepped forward and they exchanged her small form from him to her Opiluck. Ratchet cradled her, sending strong feelings of love and safety through their sparkbond as he rocked her slowly. "Shhhh! Opiluck is here light of my spark. Nothing is going to harm you."

Her tear filled optics peered up at her creator sadly. A flash of colors, red, brown, black, passed through the sparkbond that they all shared, followed closely by the sound of terrified wailing similar to her own. She sent them all her confusion and fear as the images faded into the recesses of her processor. Almost like she could not remember them when she wanted to, reminiscent of a human infant. Or maybe it was the Allspark's influence? Such a traumatic experience could alter the processor and spark.

"All is well sweetling. It was just a bad vid file. It's not real." Ratchet cooed to her quietly, still rocking her tiny form from side to side gently. Her cries started to quiet down a little bit making Ratchet smile at her softly. "That's it light of my spark. You are safe."

He released the vent that he hadn't realized that he'd been holding in when she finally quieted down into a series of soft sniffles and coos. "Primus! That was some bad vid file! I've seen it before during our sparkmerging but it still makes me wanna purge my tanks."

"I didn't even see any of it." Sunny commented quietly, optics trained solely on the still visibly distressed sparkling. "She feels like she's in pain too. What's up with that?"

His optic ridges furrowed as he poked at their sparkbond more closely. In all of the chaos of her bad vid file he had been so focused on calming her fear that he had not sensed the pain she was in until Sunny had mentioned it. "He's right. Her oral cavity hurts."

Ratchet stopped rocking her to poke at her little mouth components gingerly. "Open for opi sweetling."

Lily did so, whining softly as her discomfort spiked. By now the memory that had plagued her was long forgotten, though the fear was now intermingled with the pain that she was in. Her little spark reached out and practically wrapped itself around their's, all of them, to ensure that they stayed close. She was scared.

"Hmmm...her denta are coming in. Her oral nodes must be quite sore."

As if she understood completely what her opiluck was saying Lily pointed to her mouth and sniffled. "Opi ow! Ow! Unnnn ow! Opi!"

Ratchet made a small sound of amusement. "Well I should take her to the med bay so that I can get her a numbing agent for her oral lining. Good thing it is already time to start the day, huh sweetling?"

"Opi! Ow! Ow!" Was Lily's response to that.

"Sunny and I will come too. We have today off from patrols and comm duty."

"Well come along then." Ratchet glanced at them briefly before he carted Lily out of the room.

Sunny stalked passed him prompting him to have to speed up to catch up with his twin. They walked in silence behind Ratchet, listening to Lily continue to cry and whimper about her sore oral cavity. Every few feet she would pipe in with an 'ow', or an 'opi ow!'. It was incredibly cute, given the circumstances at least.

He just wished that he could understand how her processor was working right now. It seemed like at this point she could only remember very little of her old life when she was recharging, in bad vid files mostly. But when she came out of recharge she could only remember the emotions that had plagued her vid files.

She would know that she was scared, that something bad had happened, but she was unable to remember it at all just astroseconds after waking from recharge. Would she always be like that? Unable to remember all that she had been through? And was that truly a bad thing? To forget all the suffering and loss that had plagued her life?

He had seen her memories of when her home had been destroyed. Fire. Death. Carnage. Screams. And even though there had been very little that had happened in that place that had been good for her, it had still been her home. It had still contained her family unit. And it had been lost.

Would...would she be forced to forever be plagued by bad vid files of her previous life? Was that the only way that she would ever remember all that she had been through? In flashes of bright colors and screams of pain? Was that really any better then remembering it fully? Thus knowing what had caused you so much pain and fear?

He knew that her fear was just as palpable as it had been when she was a hybrid. It was just as strong, the reason that he had theorized this to be was because her spark remembered. Memories, emotions, desires, fears, were all contained in the spark just as much as they were in the processor. But as a sparkling who had no memory, who was a clean slate, to have to suffer from things like that nightly was...just cruel.

These thoughts plagued his processor the entire way to the med bay, and even while Ratchet worked on soothing their sparkmate's pain and distress.

All he could think was...would she be tormented like this forever? It was even more cruel than remembering.

But there was always a light to look forward to...and his happened to turn in his direction right at that moment, when he was almost consumed with anger for what had happened to her. She looked right at him with those beautiful gold green optics and chirped...like nothing was even wrong with the world anymore. Like she hadn't just been terrified or in pain.

It almost made him want to... He didn't know what he wanted...other than her, in his arms, safe and happy forever.

His body acted on autopilot, moving towards the berth as soon as the thought passed through his processor. He stopped beside it and bent over to pick her up, bringing her into the protective cradle of his arms. "We'll kick those mean old vid files in the butt plating won't we Lil?" He purred down at her, engines revving quietly making his chassis vibrate gently.

"Sies." She chirped once. "Kicka aft!"

He snorted in amusement. In the one month that she had been on base she sure had started talking more... "No Lily! Do not say that word! Opi might kick your little bottom if you don't knock it off."

"No kicka aft?" She pouted, tilting her small helm to the side despondently. "Opi kicka aft?"

"Yup. Opi kicka your aft...if you keep saying it." Grinning, he turned to Ratchet and held her up so that she was in plain sight. "She's talking a lot more now but she still hasn't grown too much physically. When is she going to start crawling and stuff?"

Ratchet scowled at him. "Like I can accurately say for sure when that will happen Sideswipe! She is forming more like a sparkling than a human child, normally with humans they walk and crawl before they speak, but for sparklings they develop mentally before the physical development happens. I would guess that she will start crawling sometime in the next month maybe." He pursed his mouth components and muttered to himself quietly. "Which means that we probably need to make a play area for her in the base. Someplace where we can put her and she can exercise her leg struts and back struts safely."

"Your opi is weird Lily." He snickered quietly.

"Opi! Eeeeiiiirdddddd!"

"Yup he's weird!"

Ratchet glared at him. "Do not try to infect my sparkling with your stupidity!"

He grinned and bounced her in his arms. "We are her sparkmates Hatchet! That means that our stupidity is always infecting her! We are bonded on the deepest level."

"Idiot. Do you really want to be wrenched this early in the morning?" Sunny muttered darkly as he inched away from him. To save himself from getting dented or scratched probably. He seemed to think better of it after a moment however and hastily snatched Lil from him. "So that she doesn't get wrenched because of your stupidity!" Sunny explained as he cradled her protectively.

"Riiiiiggggghhhhht!" He drawled obnoxiously. With a sigh he turned back to Ratchet and pointed at the giggling sparkling. "So uhhh what do we need to do differently for her now that she's breaking denta? Ironhide said that she might want to chew on things constantly. Do you have anything that is safe for her to chew to bits?"

With a huff Ratchet turned to his cabinet and retrieved some small metal rings coated in a dense rubber like material that looked to be Cybertronian in nature. He turned back to them and held them out in front of him. "These are breaking rings! When a sparkling is breaking their denta in they like to chew on these!" Next he held up a small tube of what appeared to be a solvent of some kind. "This is a numbing agent specially designed to numb a sparkling's oral lining. So what you are going to want to do it take this agent and rub it onto her oral lining to sooth and numb the oral nodes. This will help with the pain." He held up one of the rings again. "Then you give her one of these to chew on. Chewing also soothes the oral nodes and makes the sparkling feel better. It feels good for them to chew so make sure that you have these on hand for any situation. In fact I want each of you." He pointed to him, Sunny, Jazz, and Prowl, who he had completely forgotten were present. "To have a few of these on you at any given time, because once she becomes mobile she will chew on anything she can get her servos on. Pit she will chew on anything that comes into range now if given half a chance. So take two each for now and I will have Wheeljack make more."

Each of them stepped forward and took two of the chewing...er breaking rings from Ratchet, subspacing them. All besides Sunny who handed her one, which she immediately chomped down on like a mini Steeljaw. He snickered because of the little display, and subspaced his own rings.

"Take some numbing agents too." Ratchet instructed each of them.

A small tube was pushed into his servo, he subspaced it distractedly while he watched Lil chew on her ring like it was a rust stick.

She looked intensely focused on what she was doing, turning the ring at certain angles and chomping down on it with an audible crunching sound. A happy little smile was playing at her mouth components as her antennas flashed.

Sunny was cringing however, because she was dripping mouth lubricant all over his servo. "She's drooling all over me."

His comment earned him severe looks from everybot gathered. "Yes she is! Sparklings do tend to do that when they are breaking denta in Sunstreaker!" Ratchet snapped irritably.

"That is correct. Breaking denta stimulates a sparkling to lubricate orally. It is just how it works...perhaps it would be a good idea to have a bib fashioned for her." Prowl concluded quietly.

"Already ahead of you Prowl." Ratchet muttered, making another trip to his storage cabinet he retrieved a surplus of cloth like material and stalked back over. Taking one from the top, a bright pretty pink, he took it and clasped it around Lil's neck gently. "There. These should help keep her clean. However she will need to have her face plates cleaned regularly to make sure that the lubricant does not start sticking to her plates."

"Opi! Kicka aft!" Lil chirped.

Ratchet scowled at her and pointed a digit into her little face sternly. "No! Bad word! Do not say it again!"

Innocent green optics met stern blue, antennas flashing once curiously. She tilted her helm to the side, ring still lodged into her mouth components, and cooed loudly. "No aft?"

Jazz laughed, Sunny snorted, and he grinned widely when Ratchet growled in frustration.

"No aft!" Ratchet repeated.

Little optic ridges furrowed cutely before Lil pointed at herself and whirred angrily. "No! No aft! Bad!"

Everybot in the room laughed at how adorable she looked scolding herself. Even Prowl had a tiny smile playing at his mouth plates. Ratchet even looked like he just could not stay angry at her when she was being so adorable. "Right."

With a sigh the CMO patted his sparkling's helm once affectionately before straightening. "There isn't much to do today in the med bay so I plan on having First Aid take over for the day."

**'Oh Primus no!'** Sunny suddenly exclaimed in horror. **'Please don't tell me that we have to spend all day with Ratchet!?'**

He grimaced...it looked like it. There was a bright side to all this though! If Lil drooled all over Ratchet could clean it up! That way they could get out of it for a little while!

Unfortunately Ratchet seemed to have heard him...because he looked right at him and scowled. **{Oh but I think that you and Sunstreaker need to be properly trained in how to care for her. So I think that you will be cleaning her drool up quite often.}**

**'Slag!'** Both he and Sunny echoed simultaneously.

* * *

><p>(Ratchet's POV)<p>

It was sort of surreal to see a real living sparkling, hearing the chirps and coos, the mindless sparkling chatter. It had been many millenia since one had last been born. The only thing that could make these last few weeks any better would be the absence of the two idiots that were bonded to his femling.

Irritation did not properly describe what he felt for those idiots. No most of the time he felt an overwhelming need to just inflict bodily harm on both of them...and sometimes he happened to slip up and act on his impulses. However now he had to take into account the small sparkling that all of them shared a bond with.

He could not just callously hurt the twins for that very reason. That did not stop him from acting on his murderous rage from time to time, he just had to be more selective about when he did so. Like when she was distracted, or recharging, or when she was angry at one of them.

His urges had only become more satisfying since he had bonded to his sparkling when she was a hybrid. Now he actually had a valid reason to beat them in the helm with his wrenches. That reason being that he had to make sure that they behaved properly, and in a respectful manner around HIS sparkling.

The only problem with that was that the two of them were almost always on their best behavior around her. At least since she had been changed into a real sparkling. It was like they had grown up overnight almost. Their old personalities were still there, however they shaped up and acted the part of a protective guardian when other bots were around her. For the most part.

Like right now for instance.

He was sitting comfortably on a pile of old engine parts while his sparkling played with her toys. Beside her sat Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker was not far away leaning against the wall. It did not escape his notice that both of them were just as attentive to her needs as he was.

Whenever she pushed herself up onto her knee joints and servos, Sideswipe was there to steady her and make sure that she did not fall. When she did fall he was there to make sure that she did not hit her face plates on the concrete floor. He even went so far as to roll across the floor with her when she did so that it was like a game for her.

And she never stopped laughing, she never looked anything less than deliriously happy.

It almost saddened him really... Most sparklings took vorns to grow into their full frame and reach mating age, and yet his sparkling was going to reach that stage in less than two earth years. She had already grown more than the human equivalent to roughly six months in roughly one month.

Soon she would crawl, then she would walk, then she would realize that the twins were actually her sparkmates...and he would have to admit that she was all grown up again. So long as she was happy he could deal with that. It still made his spark heavy though.

"Opi."

His optics drifted up to his sparkling as soon as she uttered his name. They widened in surprise when she forced herself up onto her knee joints and servos again. Only this time she did not fall down almost immediately, in fact she was rather balanced.

Other bots gathered around to watch what would happen. Several of them were grinning widely, such as Jazz, Hot Rod, Rewind, Blaster, and Sideswipe.

Then she did the single most amazing thing that he had ever seen. She lifted her right leg and shifted it forward at the same time that she lifted her left servo and shifted forward clumsily. She repeated with the opposite limbs, struggling to get coordinated for several kliks. "Opi!"

He jumped off of his seat and knelt down closer to her level. "Come on sweetling! Come to opiluck!"

"Opi!" She chirped happily, swaying somewhat unsteadily on her servos and knees. She straightened and started forward, moving rather fast for a sparkling's first time crawling. "Opi! Opi'uck!" Her little wings twitched as she crawled closer, fluttering excitedly for every inch that she came closer to him.

His spark was thrumming in excitement! "Come on light of my spark! Come to opiluck Ratchet!" He wriggled his digits at her in a beckoning motion.

A happy squeal escaped her vocaliser then as she sped up even more and crossed the last few feet between them before he could shutter his optics. "Opi! Up!" She sat back on her knees and made grabby motions at him.

He swept her up into his arms and hugged her against his face plates. "That was very good Lilydancer! Opi is very proud of you!"

"Opi!" She repeated with a chirp.

"Want to do it again?"

"Do gain!" She repeated.

Grinning, he bent down and sat her back down on the floor. As soon as her knee joints hit the concrete she was shooting across the hangar floor towards Sideswipe. She was much more steady this time as well! Normally Praxian sparklings had difficulty finding their sense of balance due to their doorwings, however Lilydancer seemed to hold them up right and use them as a means to balance herself. If she tilted in one direction she tilted her wings in the opposite direction to balance herself out again. He wondered if she would be able to walk as easily?

"Sies! Sies!" She chirped happily, her helm suddenly swiveled around towards the door of the hangar suddenly causing her to veer in that direction instead of continuing her earlier course.

Luckily she wasn't very fast yet when compared to an upright bot, and Flareup was blocking her way to the door to the outside. The demolitions femme bent down and picked his runaway sparkling up before she could get into trouble. "Uh uh! You can't go outside on your own little femme!" She cooed at Lilydancer.

Her response was an irritated coo. "Ou!"

Flareup shook her helm and placed Lilydancer back on the floor facing the opposite direction this time. As soon as her little servos hit the floor she was shuffling off towards a pile of junk in the corner.

Shaking his helm, he stepped forward and picked her up before she could grab something that would, no doubt, be put into her mouth. Reaching into his subspace he pulled one of her breaking rings out so that she could chew on something sterile instead. "Here chew on this."

She took it from him and chomped down on it loudly, humming as she sucked on it. "Unnnnnniiiiiseeeessss."

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's faces flashed across the sparkbond strongly. The two frontliners responded instantly, waltzing over to stand beside him so that they were in plain view for her. "You're growing up so fast sweetspark!" Sideswipe grinned at her.

"Yeah she is." Sunstreaker remarked dryly. "Now all we have to worry about is her sticking her digits into an electrical outlet or something."

"No. I had Arcee and the hybrid femmes sparkling proof the base already. All electrical outlets are safely covered so that she cannot shock herself." Prowl commented stoically. "I am already well ahead of you on sparkling proofing the base Sunstreaker."

Sunstreaker shot the SIC a glare. "Yeah whatever."

"W'ver! W'ver Poooooowwwww!"

"Still...I do think that we need to go over the base again to make sure that there is no junk laying around that she can swallow."

"Of course Ratchet. I already have a daily base inspection in action. Rest assured that I am taking every precaution to ensure that she is perfectly healthy." Prowl informed him.

He grimaced...sparklings were magnets for everything that they weren't supposed to have...and he had the distinct feeling that his sparkling was going to be much more trouble than anybot expected.

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><p>(Sunny's POV-One month later.)<p>

"How did she even get up there?!" He growled out angrily as he hefted Jazz up so that the silver mech could grab the sparkling that had somehow gotten up on the support beams for the ceiling. How she had done it he would never know! What he did know was that Sideswipe was not allowed to watch her alone anymore!

"C'mere baby girl! Come ta da Jazz man!" Jazz coaxed the giggling sparkling to come closer to him.

"Uh uh! Aft!" She scooted further down the beam, whirring excitedly. Her little doorwings twitched excitedly as she tottered down the beam.

Growling, he followed along after her carrying Jazz so that the silver mech could hopefully catch her. So far she had managed to evade them by crawling between beams using the cross beams. "Sidesssss how did you lose her? She's a fragging sparkling for Primus sake!" He snapped at his twin who was standing to the side looking like a kicked petro puppy.

"I didn't even look away for more then a klik!" Sides protested as he followed along directly underneath her in case she fell. "I turned away for half a klik and when I turned back around she was up here!"

"Idiot! You know that she can climb on stuff! What part of keep your optic on her did you not understand?"

"I was keeping my optic on her! She's a conniving little sparkling!" Sides protested with a pout. He looked up at Red pleadingly. "Come on Lily! Stay still so that Uncle Jazz can get you down! Please?"

"Uhhhh! Sies! Up!" She completely ignored him and shot across another beam. Her knee joint caught on the corner of the beam when she turned making her squeal as her body toppled over to the side sharply.

His spark leapt up into his throat when she toppled to the side, only to suddenly right herself at the last second and take off giggling again. For a sparkling she had really good balance! And she was a fast little bugger too! That was making it very hard to keep her out of trouble!

"Oh Primus! What if she falls?! What if we can't get her down?!" Sides panicked.

He repositioned Jazz within grabbing distance of Red and glared at his brother. "Shut up Sides! Please grab her Jazz so that I can kill Sideswipe for being an afthelm!"

"Old on fo'a klik!" Jazz muttered. He shifted around a split second before a surprised squeal rang out across the hangar. "Go' 'er!"

Grunting, he lowered Jazz to the floor, eyeing the squirming sparkling hanging upside down in his servos warningly. "Red what have you been told about climbing on things?" He narrowed his optics on her intently.

"Uhhh Sunny!" She chirped and held her servos out for him excitedly, doorwings flapping against her back rapidly.

Jazz handed her over and he situated her against his chassis comfortably, while still eyeing her sternly. "Red that was bad! You know better!" He admonished her sternly.

"Mmmmmmm! Up!" She chirped happily and pointed at the ceiling again.

"No. Down. No more climbing on things!"

"Up! Sies up!"

Sides pursed his mouth components and shook his helm no. "Sorry sweetspark. It's not safe for sparklings to climb on the support beams. I'm with Sunny on this."

Her mouth components twisted into an unsatisfied frown doorwings fluttering angrily, and antennas flashing a bright angry red. "UP!" She screeched in a shrill ringing decibel.

He winced, audio receptors ringing from the volume. "No! You are not going up!"

"UPPPPPP!" She screeched even louder.

"Uh o'! Is' da tempa tantrum phas'." Jazz grinned.

"UPPPPPPP! UPPPPPP! WAN UPPPPPPP!" His sparkmate continued to scream at the top of her vocaliser. She even started beating her little servos against his chassis angrily and kicking him. "SUNNY UPPPPPPPPPPP!"

Her cry made his audio ring painfully. "NO! I SAID NO!" He raised his own voice back and sent her a reprimand over their sparkbond. If that didn't work he was going to have to put her in the sparkling brig. Yes they had a sparkling brig seeing as how she was always getting into everything on the base.

"UUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPP!" She practically exploded as her wires crackled threateningly.

"Don't you do it." He warned her when he caught sight of the first burst of electricity dancing along the surface of her hair like wires.

"UUUUUUUUUPPPPPP NOOOOOEEEEEWWWWWWW!" She cried before delivering her first seering zap of electric energy directly into the break in his servo plating.

A sharp jolt of pain went tearing through his servo making him hiss slightly in pain. He growled at her and tapped her aft once sharply. "I told you not to do that! Now you get to go into the sparkling brig as punishment for being a bad sparkling!"

Turning on his heel he started towards their room, Sides and Jazz flanking him. The thrashing of the sparkling in his hold only grew in intensity as her wails reached even more audio splitting volumes. She screamed as loud as she could, thrashing against his servos in a full blown temper tantrum, antennas flashing an enraged red, and doorwings scraping against his paint angrily.

He stalked into their room and over to the large pen similar to Aednat's pen, only this one was made of dense glass, had a top with a latch, and was lined with toys and her blanket. "Until you can learn to be a good sparkling and behave you get to stay in here!"

He placed her down inside of it and snapped the top shut angrily. Stalking over to the couch he plopped onto it next to Sides and Jazz. "Primus! Who knew that sparklings could be so aggressive and volatile?" He muttered quietly to his companions as he watched his sparkmate scream and throw a fit in her pen.

She had immediately started beating on the glass with both servos and wires, as well as with her toys. Shrill ringing screams kept falling from her vocaliser one after the other without pause, and big fat energon tears were spilling down her cheek plates. "UUUUUUUUPPPPPPPP! OPPPPIIIIIII!" She screeched at defeaning volume.

"Man she has a good vocaliser on her." Sides commented with a grin.

"And a good potent zap." He muttered while rubbing his sore servo. A shudder almost passed through him, ALMOST, when he thought about the fact that she was still an infant in both human and Cybertronian optics, thus her attack was not very developed... Yet it still packed a punch for her size, and he almost shuddered to think about how strong it would be when she was a full grown femme.

By now she had given up on beating on her pen walls and was laying now laying on her back kicking and screaming. Her wires slapped against the toys in her pen angrily, tossing them around in a blind rage. "Sies! Azz!" She screamed, beating her tiny fisted servos against the floor of her pen again.

There was a pile of blocks in the corner of her pen with Cybertronian symbols on them. He thought nothing of having them in there until her optics landed on them and her cries quieted down instantly. In response he raised an optic ridge when she rolled over clumsily and forced herself to her knees.

She crawled over to them and poked at them briefly, before turning and eyeing the latch to her pen. A soft happy coo escaped her vocaliser before she started pushing her blocks over to the other side of her pen closest to the latch.

They all watched her curiously as she sat up once she had all of her blocks near her desired spot, and stacked them like a pyramid. Once they were stacked she pushed the entire stack, using her wires to keep it steady, over until it was directly under the latch to her pen. As soon as it was directly under it she crawled up onto the cubes.

"Wow...she's smart." Sides commented as she balanced herself on top of the cubes and used her wires to grab onto the grooves in the latch door.

"Yeah but how is she going to open it? A code has to be keyed into it."

At least, a code was supposed to be keyed into it. However a sharp concentrated burst of electromagnetic energy emanating from her wires seemed to do the trick quite nicely, for the latch practically exploded up from the top of her pen as a result.

"Yeah but she can't get out. Right?" Even he wasn't so sure about that one...since she did find a way to climb onto the ceiling somehow.

Delicate looking red wires slipped over the lip of the pen, sharp spike like appendages shooting out from the ends to dig into the glass like a grappling hook. Using those as leverage she grabbed the lip of the latch and pulled her little body up through the opening, little pedes kicking wildly as she grunted in exertion.

His jaw dropped, Sides choked, and Jazz laughed mirthfully. "She sho is a talen'ed sparklin' ain't she?" The saboteur grinned widely. "She gonna be a spybot fo sho when she's olda!"

With a tiny grunt she hefted herself completely out of her pen and crawled across the top towards the side nearest to them. Using her wires she attached herself to the side of the pen and allowed her body to fall over the side, wires catching and stopping her from hitting the floor just inches from it's surface.

A soft pop sounded as the claw-like attachments shifted back into her wires which fluttered back against her back plates innocently. "Sunny!" She chirped, crawling over to them as soon as she was safely seated on the ground. Stopping by his pedes she held her servos out for him and cooed happily. "Up!"

All he could do was nod dumbly and pick her up to cradle her against his chassis. His processor was still stuck on the cyberninja style escape she had just done. Who knew that a femme could use her wires like that?

**'Sounds kinky.'** Sides poked him over the bond.

**'Shut up Sides! Primus she's just a sparkling!'**

**'I wasn't meaning it like that! Although now that you mention it...when she gets older that could be really kinky.'**

Shuddering in disgust he forcefully shoved his brother out of his helm resolutely. Primus knew that he did not need his twin's perversions infecting his processor when their sparkmate was a fragging sparkling! Especially when he had to agree that the wires could be very...argh!

Sides laughed at him. "Having issues there Sunny? Hmmm?"

"Shut up slagger! At least I'm not having perversions about a sparkling."

His twin spluttered. "What? I am not! I just meant that when she gets older it could be really kinky to have those wires in the berth room! It's not like I'm sexually attracted to her now!"

"Right. That's why you just called that little cyberninja slag kinky."

"Kinky!" Red parroted loudly. "Kinky!"

"Now look what you have her saying!" He smacked his twin in the back of the helm angrily. Ratchet was going to have their afts for all the slag she was learning when in their company!

Sides yelped and ducked to avoid anymore blows. "What did I do? You were the one that said it last before she said it!"

"Sai i'!" Red parroted again, sounding remarkably like Jazz.

When Jazz shifted forward with a grin both he and Sides turned to him and growled. "Forget about it!" No way was she going to go around talking like Jazz! He would make fragging sure of that!

"Ge' bou' 't!" Red parroted AGAIN!

"Where the slag is Ratchet anyways? Everytime she starts up a new bad habit he's absent!" Shifting the sparkling in his arms he opened a comm link with the CMO. "Stop that." He admonished Red while he waited for a response from Ratchet, when she started trying to gnaw on his paint.

"Sopit!" Once again she parroted him, but she kept trying to gnaw on his paint so he was forced to reach into his subspace and retrieve one of her breaking rings.

As soon as he shoved it into her mouth Ratchet opened the comm link. **'What is it Sunstreaker? Is Lilydancer okay?'**

**'Yeah she's good. I was just comming you to let you know that you may want to upgrade your sparkling brig because she just broke out of the one in our room. And fraggit she keeps trying to eat my paint!'** Scowling he pushed her little denta away from his chassis and handed her the breaking ring that she had tried to discard. "Stop it."

"Sopit!"

**'How in the pit did she do that?'** Ratchet's disbelief was quite clear even through the comm link.

**'Well she pushed her toy blocks over and stacked them underneath the latch door, then she climbed up on them until she was close enough to the latch.'**

**'Really?'**

**'Yes. Next she used her wires to attach herself to the grooves underneath the latch plating to steady herself, and she zapped the lock with a nice strong burst of electric energy. After she she used her wires to help pull herself out.'**

**'And you picked her up before she fell off the side right?'**

**'No. Her wires have claw like appendages that come out of the end that she used to dig into the glass on the side of the pen, and she just threw herself off the side.'**

Silence... **'She what?'**

**'She threw herself off the side and caught herself with the wires that she had hooked into the glass.'** He repeated, irritation welling up inside of him because he was forced to repeat himself, and because Red was trying to chew on him again. "Stop it!"

"Sopit!"

'Hmmm this could be problematic.'

**'Tell me about it. Even the sparkling brig isn't Red proof.'** He muttered, once again pushing Red away when her denta found purchase in the grooves of his armor. "Red do not make me spank you."

"Pank! Pank!"

**'I just commed Prowl and he wants to see this for himself. As does Optimus. Come to the main meeting hall in five kliks.'** With that the link went silent.

Just what he wanted to do today! Showcase his cyberninja sparkling sparkmate! Actually...that sounded like a good idea. He grinned smugly...his mate was a cyberninja sparkling! She was going to be the hottest, most dangerous femme in the Autobot army when she was older he was sure of it! That meant that he needed to show her off for how amazing she was.

"Come on guys. Prowl and Optimus want to see us in the meeting hall in three kliks." Hefting himself from the couch, he situated Red more comfortably against his chassis as he started for the door.

Sides and Jazz hopped up and started after him, together the three of them exited the room and started for the meeting hall.

"Sopit! Sopit! Panky! Fwag! Mah aft!" Red chirped as she peered over his shoulder plates at Sides and Jazz. "Azz mah aft! Fwag! Opi! Panky! Panky! Kinky!"

Sides snorted. "Ratchet is going to be so happy about her language."

"Fuck!" Red chirped. "Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!" Her little doorwings fluttered against the side of his face plates excitedly. "Sunny fuck! Kinky! Pank!"

Unfortunately she had to repeat those particular words as soon as they stepped into the meeting room where almost every bot on base was gathered around a sparkling pen. Several of them turned and stared in surprise, others glared at them for teaching her the language, and Ratchet looked like he wanted to kill them.

However the CMO refrained from assaulting them instead pointing to the sparkling pen. "Put her in it."

Stepping passed the other bots he opened the pen and placed Red into it making her chirp in confusion. "Show your opi what you can do baby." He encouraged her whilst leaning back and locking the latch. "She might throw a fit first so don't be surprised if-oh never mind! She already is."

"UUUUUUPPPPPPPP! SUNNY UUUUUPPPPPP!" Red screamed at the top of her vocaliser. She held her servos out for him and kicked at the sides of her pen angrily. "UUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPP!" She screeched.

Several bots winced and he shuffled back expectantly.

She was much quicker to go about her little escape routine once she realized that he had left her in the pen when she obviously wanted him. With an angry whirr she rolled onto her stomach plates and pushed her blocks towards the latch, where she stacked them again in the same exact way that she had done last time.

Everybot watched completely spellbound as she climbed her block tower, wires coming to life again and latching onto the door to her pen with her little grappling hook attachments. Her doorwings fluttered once before she shocked the lock, causing the latch to pop open with a sharp smack as it collided with the glass roof of the pen.

With a little grunt she grabbed the edge of the glass and pulled herself up over the edge of her pen. "Sunny! Up!" She reached for him as soon as she was free.

"No baby. You have to get down on your own."

She squealed angrily and crawled to the edge of the pen where she repeated her earlier actions and stabbed her wire hooks into the glass wall. Without pause she allowed her body to flop over the edge, wires hooks screeching against the glass as she fell towards the floor.

"That is fragging cool." Flareup commented as Red stopped just inches from hitting the floor and released her wire hooks causing her little aft to plummet the last few inches to the floor safely.

"Yeah it is." Sides agreed with a grin. "Our sparkmate is the coolest femme ever."

"Sunny! UP!" Red immediately started crawling over to him as soon as she hit the floor.

He leaned down and accepted her into his servos securely bringing her up to his chassis safely. "That was very good Red!"

"Up!" She pointed at the ceiling.

Well at least they knew how she was getting up there now... "So uhhh we have to re-sparkling proof the base." He directed that comment at Prowl who looked beyond surprised, for him anyways.

"Yes it would appear so...though I do not know how we can stop that from happening." The SIC pointed to her wires warily. "Short of having Ratchet disable that particular system. However that would be cruel..."

"Not to mention that that is the coolest thing ever." Sides piped in excitedly. He suddenly turned towards him and snatched Red from him so that he could hold her up in front of him. "Aren't you the smartest sparkling ever? You're going to be an amazing femme when you're older!"

"Kinky!" Red chirped.

"Yup and a kinky one too!" Sides agreed earning himself scathing looks from Ratchet, and Prowl.

"What have you two been teaching her?" Ratchet hissed like an irate cat.

"Sides did it."

"Did not!" Sides paused in making silly faces at the sparkling to protest. "Sunny was the one that said what I was thinking out loud! And he took it in a completely different context than how I meant it!"

He glared at his twin. "What other context can you use that word in?!"

"Kinky can be used for lots of things other than interfacing!"

"Like what?!"

"Like pranking!"

"I call bullslag on that you perverse face maniac!"

"If I am one than so are you!"

"At least I can control myself around our mate who happens to be a sparkling!"

Sides looked affronted. "I behave perfectly fine in front of her! Isn't that right Lily?" He turned back to coo at their sparkling mate.

She widened her optics and clapped happily. "'Ace! Kinky! Pank! Pank!"

Everybot just glared at Sides...

"Kinky!"

Let's just say that his twin had a permanent dent in his helm for the next three weeks courtesy of Ratchet the Hatchet...

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><p>R&amp;R! Please see my profile page and vote for names! If you have any of your own suggestions that you would like me to add to the poll suggest away!<p> 


	36. Chapter 36

Sorry for not having an update done yesterday guys. I had an appointment in the morning so I had no time for writing. Unfortunately I have another appointment on Thursday so I don't know if I will be able to update then either. So I'll update now while I can. I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

Six months had passed since his sparkmate had been turned into a sparkling. In that time she had started speaking more easily and fluidly, despite the fact that she still could not walk yet. She spent a lot of time asking questions due to her curious sparkling nature, or escaping from her pen to go explore on her own. They were always having to track her down when she did that.

Which is where he and Sides were again! Tracking their runaway sparkmate down after she had somehow used a paperclip and a rubber band to somehow escape from her pen. What he wanted to know was how the pit she even used a PAPERCLIP AND A PEN, to escape from a high tech Cybertronian sparkling pen?!

**'She's a genius.'** Sides pointed out as they walked down the corridor towards the armory. Her spark signature seemed to be coming from that direction.

**'She's a menace. I love her with all of my spark but she is driving me to insanity!'**

This was her third escape in the last two days! At this rate he was sure that even the brig would not be able to hold her! Pit he was actually waiting to see her get thrown into it when she was older, just so that he could see if his theory was right!

Whatever the case they had arrived at the armory, and together they walked in. His processor nearly fritzed when he saw Red in the center of the floor chewing on the barrel of one of Ironhide's plasma rifles. "Red no!" He scolded her making her jump in surprise.

He stalked towards her and snatched the gun from her, replacing it back onto it's designated shelf he glared at her sternly. "Weapons are not toys Red! You don't chew on them!"

She pouted, doorlets and antennas drooping down despondently. "Bu' Sunny! Tastes ummy!"

Scowling, he leaned down and picked her up, settling her against his upper chassis. "I don't care if it tastes yummy! You could have shot yourself Red!" Now he had to add her infiltration abilities to the long list of things that made her a menace, because the armory was locked. Only a superior officer or a soldier could get in with a code. And since nobot was here, he was going to assume that she had somehow found her own way in. "Chewing on guns is bad baby. It could have gone off and you could have been shot!"

A sad sounding chirp fell from her vocaliser then. "Sowwy Sunny. I be goo'...no mow chew on guns."

He turned to her to make sure that she was being serious, and she looked genuinely sorry with her little doorlets drooping down despondently. That and he felt her genuine regret for making them worry over their bond. He nodded once frown still in place. "Ok baby. Just don't do that again okay?"

"Kay. No do gain." She repeated. Her optics drifted up and over to Sides brightening when she saw him. Trilling happily she reached out and made grabby motions at him. "Sides! Come! Huuugggy!"

And of course his brother was a complete sucker and did not even try to deny her, for anything, ever. Sides grabbed her up and hugged her to his chassis gently. "You sure have been a bad sparkling lately Lily. Prowl might just have to throw you in the brig to keep you from wreaking havoc on the base." Sides joked.

"No! No bwig!" She chanted with a pout.

Her fuel tanks gave a small rumble suddenly. He frowned and ushered Sides from the room. "Did you refuel today Red?"

"Uh uh. Used da enygon opi gave me bafow he lef' to make slippy stuff to help me pwy da doow to my pen open!" She chirped happily.

"Lily!" Sides snorted in amusement. "Energon is hard enough to find as it is! You should only refuel with it, not use it to escape from your pen!"

"Buh Sides! No like da pen! Wan' ou'!"

He snorted and walked into the rec room, optics taking in Ironhide sitting with Lennox and Ratchet. When Ratchet saw them he waved them over, or more specifically he wanted to see Red. So they walked over to him and took a seat across the table from him.

Sides sat their sparkmate down on the table and unsurprisingly she made a beeline for Lennox. "Lenny! Whe' Anna?"

"She went out to pick out a pumpkin to carve for Halloween with her mom." Lennox responded.

"Wha a punkin?" Red chirped excitedly. She plopped down on her aft plates right beside Lennox and gifted him with her ultimate cute look, a look that nobot on base had been able to fight against yet.

Lennox grimaced, probably because she was just that fragging adorable. "Well a pumpkin is a round orange fruit that human children like to carve faces into! It's for a holliday called Halloween."

Red's antennas flashed a bright curious yellow as she trilled happily. "Wha's a haaaooooweeeen?"

Lennox looked towards Ratchet nervously, probably because he knew how much of a menace Red could be. Therefore any ideas given to her would be acted upon due to her curious nature. When Ratchet said nothing and just shrugged Lennox turned back to Red and scratched his head tiredly. "Well Halloween is a holiday where human children dress up in scary costumes and go trick or treating."

"Wha's twick ow tweatin?"

"It's where children go door to door and ask for candy. They knock on the door and say trick or treat! And the person that answers the door gives them candy!"

As soon as Lennox finished his little explanation he knew there was going to be trouble, because little Red's antennas flashed a bright almost blinding yellow like the color of the sun. That meant excitement and curiosity and in Red those were not usually a good thing.

"I cawve a punkin too? And twick ow tweat?" She chirped.

"Umm well we can get you a pumpkin to carve maybe...or have Wheeljack grow you one." Lennox rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "But you can't trick or treat because you uhhh...can't eat human candy. And they only give out human candy."

"Yea can!" She protested immediately. "Opi say I can eat uman foo' too! He jus' say dat is not good fo me as enygon!"

Lennox looked to him for help...he just shrugged and shook his helm. Once she got started she just could not let something drop until she had answers.

"Well you aren't human Lilydancer. You can't go trick or treating because you're...too...your costume is too real!" Lennox exclaimed tiredly. "It will make the other kids feel bad."

He wanted to say that that excuse was the single worst excuse he had ever heard in his entire life but...he was pretty sure that Lennox already knew that from the way he was not smacking himself in the head. "You can't trick or treat Red."

Her tiny helm snapped back around in his direction instantly. A tiny pout was pulling at her mouth components and her optics were filled with energon tears. She sniffled and dropped her doorlets down sadly. "Bu' Bu'! Sunny! Wanna go twick ow tweatin! Want cany!"

"Well you can't go trick or treating Red. Lennox is right and your costume is too..." His optics drifted over her small purple form in a cursory glance. "real." He finished lamely.

Those tiny doorlets dropped down in defeat and she trilled sadly. "Kay."

Lennox laid a hand on her shoulder. "I can definitely get you a pumpkin to carve though! Sarah and I will bring it over later today so that you and Annabelle can carve them together."

Red sulked but nodded anyways. "Kay." Trilling sadly she turned and crawled over to Ratchet and tapped on the bottom of his hold. "In." She demanded.

Ratchet who was used to her mood swings simply opened his hold and helped her into it before closing it after she was safely tucked inside. "You had to tell her about Halloween Lennox...didn't you?" The CMO sighed and sipped at his energon cube.

Speaking off... "Red didn't refuel earlier Ratchet. She said that she used her energon as a lubricant to pry her pen door open."

The green mech groaned and shook his helm tiredly. "This sparkling is going to send me to insanity." He murmured in exasperation tinged with affection. A small tired smile pulled at his mouth components as he gently rubbed his sparkling hold. "If she wasn't my sparkling I might have wrenched her already for being a menace."

For some reason he didn't doubt that at all. But the upset waves wafting over the sparkbond he and his twin shared with the small sparkling hiding in Ratchet's hold distracted him from thinking too deeply on it. As her sparkmate it was his job to provide all that she wanted and or needed for her...so he wanted to give her what she wanted. The only problem was finding out a way to do it.

**'Jacky has energon candy. And we could have Lennox give us some human candy since Lily can eat it.'**

Turning to look at Sides he raised an optic ridge at him, catching onto what he was thinking. **'And have her go from each of the bot's doors to collect it like real trick or treating?'**

Sides grinned. **'It is real trick or treating Sunny. Bot style!'**

He frowned. **'Yeah but she doesn't have a costume.'**

**'We can make her one. Or we can have Lennox get one for her, and we can alter it to fit her.'**

Sides had a point, and if it made Red happy he was all for it. So long as nothing was damaged in any way in the resulting chaos. First things first. They had to get her a costume and a pumpkin. She was actually almost the same size as Lennox so she would need a bigger costume.

If he recalled correctly, Red loved Boo from a human children's movie called Monster's Inc. That costume could be recreated easily enough, it was just making her more Cybertronian features able to fit into the human clothes that would prove to be hard. Her doorlets especially.

**'We can make it work. I'll talk to Lennox about getting the things she needs for her costume.'**

He grimaced...for some reason he had the distinct feeling that this was all going to go over really well. Anything involving Red usually involved excess stress, and or humor. Usually it was the former that triumphed over any redeeming qualities in the situations that she caused.

So no he was not looking forward to this...and at the same time he kind of was. That was just one huge contradiction in itself.

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><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

"Lennox...what is that?"

Sideswipe snickered at the look of disdain that Sunny was shooting the large orange thing that Lennox was holding out to them. He looked up the word pumpkin on the internet to confirm what Sunny should already know. Even if he knew that the question had been more rhetorical than anything.

And just like Sunny had been hoping for his question elicited a scowl from Lennox. The NEST commander thrust the large orange thing at his twin's waiting servos. "This Sunstreaker, is a pumpkin! I got it for Lilydancer to carve for Halloween!"

Sunny sniffed at the offending object discreetly making a disgusted face when the slightly stale earthy scent his his olfactory senses. It really did smell awful. "This thing is disgusting! There is no way our sparkmate is carving this Lennox! I will not have this nasty smell all over her."

Lily shifted in his arms and trilled at Sunny angrily. "Cawve it! I cawve da punkin! Sunny no say dat I can'!"

Sunny spun around and glared at Lily sternly. "You will do as you are told!"

Oh slag...this argument was becoming a common occurence for these two ever since Lily learned how to talk and crawl.

"Sunny mean! I cawve punkin! Sides say I can! Opi say I can too!"

"Alright cut it out!" He jumped in before they could really get going. Both were stubborn as pit and sometimes they argued for hours at a time over little things. That was the last thing that they needed right now.

Luckily another distraction came over in the form of Wheeljack, who bounded over to them to peer at the orange thing that Sunny was holding. "What is that?" His optics dulled down suddenly while he searched it on the web. They brightened back up as he chittered excitedly. "I wonder if I can make it grow to three times it's normal size through the use of enhancers?"

Sunny grimaced and handed the thing over to Jacky. "Feel free to try it...and please blow it up when you're done."

Lily chirped angrily and reached out for Jacky. Jacky took her in his free servo and looked down at her when she poked at his face with her tiny servos. "'Acky dat my punkin! No bow i' up! I cawve it late'! Bwing back when make i't biggew!"

Jacky looked over at Sunny when he started rapidly shaking his helm no, but a sharp tug from Lily on his audio horn had him instantly turning back to her in surprise. "Yes Lilydancer?"

She glared at him and pointed at Sunny. "No isten to 'im 'Acky! My punkin! Bwing back aftew make biggew! I cawve it! Sunny no' my boss! Opi say I can! Opi boss! No' Sunny!"

Jacky cracked a small grin and nodded, audio fins flashing with mirth. "Very well Lilydancer! I will make it bigger and bring it back after I'm done! That way you can carve a huge pumpkin!"

"Kay. I go bac' Sides now!" Lily trilled holding her servos out for him to take her from Jacky. They exchanged her from Jacky to him while she started chattering excitedly about her new pumpkin. "Sides! Sides! I gonna cawve da punkin! I make pwetty faces on da punkin! You help?"

He had to grin at her cuteness. "Of course I'll help! I'll help you carve the face!"

Trilling happily, Lily clapped her servos and cooed loudly. "Yay! Cawve punkin! Cawve punkin wit' Sides! We cawve punkin toge'er!" She flopped forward onto his chassis and flapped her little doorlets like she always did when she was happy. "Cawve punkin! Cawve punkin! Fun! Fun!"

Pursing his mouth components, Sunny was sending waves of irritation at him through the bond...he turned to his twin and raised an optic ridge before gesturing down at the trilling sparkling he was holding. "Tell me that you are really that mad when she's this happy? Wasn't that what this was all about Sunny? Making her happy?"

Sunny grumbled under his breath and through the bond, grudgingly admitting that he was right. Even if not verbally of course. "What about her costume?" He grumbled irritably.

All of them looked over towards Lennox again when they heard the plastic of the bag he was holding out shift. The NEST commander raised an eyebrow. "You asked me to get everything that she would need to be Boo for Halloween. Everything that you need will be in this bag."

Lennox handed the bag to him and nodded once awkwardly. "Well I need to be getting back to work so I can get done early and bring Annabelle here later so that she can carve her pumpkin with Lilydancer."

"Ok. See ya later Lennox." He waved the human off and turned back to Lily when she poked at the bag he was holding curiously. "Let's go and visit Opi so he can see your new costume too!"

"Kay. Go see Opi! Twy cotume on!" She trilled.

Turning on his pedes he started down the hallway to the med bay where Ratchet was probably working on medical documents again. The CMO would want to see his sparkling in her first...and probably only Halloween costume. In reality he would probably kill them if they didn't come and show him. And he was not chancing that at all!

"I cawve punkin! I kicka aft a' cawve punkins!"

"No. Do not say aft Lily! Your opi will make you go into time out if he hears you!"

A soft sad click was his only answer for that.

They stepped into the med bay, optics landing on Ratchet slumped over a desk working on datapads again. As soon as Lily saw him she trilled happily and waved her arms at him. "Opi! Come! I cawve punkin! Sides say I got cotume! You come see? Den 'Acky come give punkin 'n I cawve it!"

Ratchet immediately looked up from whatever he was working on with a warm smile on his mouth components. He got up from his desk and made his way over to take Lily from him. "Oh? Jacky's getting you a pumpkin? I thought Lennox was getting you one?" The CMO looked at both he and Sunny warily.

"Lennox did get the pumpkin, but Jacky wants to genetically enhance the pumpkin to make it bigger. Lily's really excited about it." He shrugged and sat the bag down on a near by berth. "He also got her a costume to wear for the little surprise Sunny and I are making for her." He untied the bag and pulled out a large pink shirt, a pair of purple pants, and a set of little pink hair ties. There was also a large bag of candy in the bottom of the bag, but he closed it before Lily could see it.

Ratchet sat Lily down on the berth and took the shirt that he held out for him. "Hmm we need to cut slits for her doorwings...luckily she is of a very petit build, so she can fit into this." Muttering to himself, Ratchet moved over towards his desk and started cutting slits into the shirt with his scalpel.

While he was doing that he took the purple pants and helped Lily into them. It was hard to get them around her pedes, but he managed to get them on her. They were a much lighter shade of purple than her paint and they stood out in contrast.

Ratchet came back over and tapped Lily's doorlets gently. "Fold them down sweetling so opiluck can put your shirt on." He instructed.

Lily chirped and pulled her wings down so that they were flush against her frame.

"Hold still." Ratchet instructed as he slipped the shirt over her little helm. "Arms up please." He slid the short sleeves over her tiny arms and pulled the shirt down the rest of the way onto her frame. Once it was on her, Ratchet moved and gently pulled her doorlets through the slits in her shirt. "There. You look very cute sweetling."

"I cu'e! I cu'e!"

"Yup you sure are cute Lily. But we still have to tie your hair into pig tails so that you really look like Boo." Picking up the small hair ties he gently pulled her long red wires up into two bunches at each side of her helm, then he tied them securely with the pink hair ties. He stepped back and grinned at her as she twitched her little antennas when her wires brushed against them making her giggle. "There! Now you look like Boo!"

"I Boo! I Boo!" She scrambled up from the berth using her servos to push herself to her pedes and stood.

He watched her carefully. She had been trying to stand and walk lately, but her wings had done the opposite of helping her in her walking endeavors. They weighed her upper back down and tended to make her fall onto her aft, an impediment that she was not at all pleased about.

She chirped, swaying precariously on her pedes, trying to keep her balance. Her wings twitched in excitement causing her to fall down onto her aft again. Her happy chirps turned into angry trills as she beat on the berth with her tiny servos. "I sand now! Why no wowk?! Want walk! Opi make me walk!"

Ratchet chuckled at her. "I can't make you walk sweetling. But I can help you learn how." Gentle servos helped her get her pedes under her again, only this time Ratchet balanced her so that she wouldn't fall. "Instead of holding your balance lower in your back like most of us," He poked her lower back struts gently to show her what he was talking about. "hold your center of balance up here." He dragged his digit up and tapped her shoulder gently. "If you don't your wings will weigh you down."

Lily pursed her mouth components when Ratchet took his servo away leaving her standing on her own two pedes. She swayed slightly just briefly before she shifted her pede forward, unfortunately her little wings started flapping due to her excitement and they threw her off balance making her fall forward.

Ratchet caught her before she could hit her face on the metal berth. "It will take time to learn how to walk sweetling." He encouraged her when she chirped sadly and sniffled like she was about to cry. "When we fall down it is so that we can learn to get up again no matter how frustrating failure can be. It teaches us perseverance and allows us to learn from our mistakes. Keep trying and soon you will get it right."

"M'kay." She chirped sadly.

He knelt down in front of her face and grinned. "Don't be sad Lily! I thought that you were happy that you get to carve your first pumpkin today? Then you get a special surprise from me and Sunny!"

"Supise?" Lily repeated with a sniffle. She wiped her pretty gold green optics of the tears filling them. "Sides and Sunny giv' supise?"

"Yup!" Speaking of...he had to go and give Bee and Bluestreak the candy to hand out to the other mechs and femmes on base. Besides Limelight and Demetri of course. Those two were not allowed near Lily for any reason. He also had to make sure that Jacky had made the energon candy that he had requested earlier. "Actually sweetling, Sunny and I need to go and take care of some things for the surprise. So you need to stay with your opi until we come back and get you okay?"

Her doorlets drooped. "Ou' eavin?"

"Only for a little bit. We'll come back and get you when it's time to carve your pumpkin okay?" He picked her up and kissed her small helm gently while he rubbed her small doorlets. They twitched under his digits making him grin in response...she really was too cute for her own good.

"Say wit opi till Sides an' Sunny come back."

Sunny took her from him and nuzzled her helm gently. "Be good for Ratchet okay? Stay with him and do not leave the med bay without him."

"S'ay wit' opi Atchet till Sides 'n' Sunny come bac." Lily repeated quietly.

Sunny handed her back to Ratchet, and together they left the med bay to go and see to Lily's Halloween surprise. First things first...they had to see Jacky to make sure that he had done the energon candy...and also to make sure that he hadn't blown Lily's pumpkin up.

...If there was a way to blow the pumpkin up chemically, Jacky would be the bot to do it. He was almost scared to see what the scientist had done when he stopped outside of his quarters.

He pushed the button and the door slid open. His optic ridges shot up in surprise when they landed on Jacky's work table. "Jacky what the pit did you do?!"

Pit this...how did?! What the pit had Jacky done to Lily's pumpkin?!

Jacky only grinned. "It's amazing isn't it? And I even finished the energon candy that you asked me to make!"

He couldn't even tears his optics away from the orange...thing to look at anything else. How was Lily supposed to carve that?!

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><p>(Ratchet's POV)<p>

Having his sparkling tottering around the med bay while he worked certainly made his day more exciting...and not always in the good way either. Lilydancer was into everything, somehow scaling the counters and tearing through the supplies that he still had to sort, or jumping off the counters of berths. Among other things.

He was constantly having to stop his work to get her off the counters, or reorganize the supplies that she had thrown all over the place. He loved her with all of his spark, but it could be very trying on his patience when she disrupted his workspace so much.

If she wasn't just a sparkling he would have punished her thoroughly for tearing his supplies apart, but since she was just a sparkling he just resorted to putting all of his supplies into the highest cupboards and locking them so she would have a harder time getting to them.

To keep her distracted he had taken out her coloring book and crayons and placed her in her pen on the counter. He left the top open so that she could talk to him while he worked, and also because he did not want to repair the pen when she broke out of it.

Right now she was coloring a picture of what appeared to be Sunstreaker using bright yellow and navy blue crayons. Every now and then she would chitter or trill happily as she colored in the large gold mech's form. It looked remarkably well done for a sparkling as well if he was being honest. And if it kept her from destroying his med bay he was more than pleased.

Turning away from her he focused back on the datapads that needed to be filled out. Standard medical reports, the results of the latest post mission exams, Lilydancer's latest physical exam. Things like that, each one needed to be filed away for later examination.

What he had discovered during his sparkling's latest exam was that her doorlets were becoming more active. At first there had been a bare minimal sensory perception, for her at least. But in recent weeks her sensory receptors had seemingly been boosted in sensitivity to a large degree.

She was now able to pick up spark signatures from much farther away than she had been able to previously. Coupled with that was her ability to pick up on mental impulses, which had shown a dramatic increase as well. They still weren't completely developed, and not nearly as advanced as she had been as a hybrid yet, but they would get there. Her receptors became more sensitive every day.

He also estimated a growth spurt to hit her pretty soon from her large intake of energon as of late. She had even started to try and steal the soldier's food any chance that she got so that she could sate her almost insatiable need to refuel. That was how he had found out that her converter was now active, after a mishap with her swiping a soldier's lunch tray and eating all the food on it before Sideswipe had been able to stop her. He had expected her tanks to become very upset, however when he had scanned her he discovered that her energon converter was converting it and siphoning it into her fuel tanks.

It seemed to take a lot of energy for her to do this however, probably due to her underdeveloped frame. When she got older he was sure that converting would become easier for her. However he was worried about her eating all the human candy that Lennox had got for her. Certain things tended to upset her tanks regardless of her converting it into energon.

A sharp clinking sound drew his attention away from the file he was working on just in time to see his sparkling throw a glass jar of medical salve onto the floor with a resounding crash. "Lilydancer!" He shot to his pedes and swept her up from the counter so that he could smack her aft plates firmly. "No! You do not throw opiluck's medical supplies!"

Her pig tails fluttered when her helm snapped over in his direction, all wide optics and big fat energon tears. She sniffled and jutted her bottom mouth component out in a pout. "Pwetty sparkles!" She pointed at the glass shards scattered across the floor sadly. "Keep sparkles."

"Lilydancer...you can't throw my medical supplies. Everything in this room is used to save the lives of other bots my spark. That means that it is very important that you do not damage anything."

"Sa'e o'er bots?" She repeated inquisitively, little antennas flashing brightly.

"Yes. Opi saves other bots who are hurt. To do that I need the tools and supplies in this room so you can't keep breaking them."

Her antennas and doorlets drooped sadly. "I sowwy opi. No mowe bweak stuff." She pushed her sorrow over their sparkbond along with her feelings of regret and apology.

With a sigh he sat her back in her pen and went about cleaning the glass shards up with a dust pan. "It's ok sweetling. Just promise opi that you will not do it again ok?"

"Pwomise no do gain."

"Good." Sweeping the last of the glass into the pan he dumped it into the trash and grabbed a damp rag from his sink so that he could wipe the salve up. He knew that her actions were also a demand for his attention, as the CMO he was often too busy to spend as much time with her as he wanted. So her other caretakers usually were able to spend more time with her than he was. She missed him, he could clearly feel that through their bond every day.

Maybe Optimus would allow him to have some more time off to spend with her? With First Aid there to run the med bay in his absence it was certainly plausible. And there were things that he did not want to miss such as her first alt mode, her first drive in said alt mode, things like that. Creators were always present for their sparkling's first drive, it was tradition.

Soon she would be able to walk, and that meant that they needed to get some smaller vehicles for her to use until her frame grew to it's full size. He also needed to talk to Optimus and Lennox about that as well, though he supposed that she could just use the same mode as Arcee.

"Opi wha' i' call when 'ou ma'e bots feel bettew?"

He finished cleaning the floor and tossed the rag into the sink before facing her. "Well we call it repairing. I am what is called a medic, in fact I am the Commanding Medical Officer. That means that I am the top medic in the Autobot army. My job is to repair the other bots so that they can fight."

Her optics grew big as their bond swelled with her excitement. "'Azz say dat I be spy'ot when I oldew. I wan't be spy'ot! I be me'ic too?"

A surge of pride went through his spark. She wanted to be like her opiluck! "If you want. Soon I can start teaching you basic field repairs, as soon as you can walk of course." Excitement coursed through every circuit in his frame. Besides her it had been several millenia since he had a student, the last two had been Jolt and First Aid. He was excited to teach his sparkling his profession.

After she grew up a little bit more of course. That meant that he would need to download a standard medical packet to her processor at some point soon, he also had to download the data that Prowl had put together for him on Praxian customs, and door language. All of that would have to be done soon, after he strengthened her internal firewalls of course.

"Opi 'ou each me be me'ic w'en I oldew? 'Azz each me be spy'ot when I oldew too." She chirped happily prompting him to pat her helm gently. "Be supew neaky! Jus' like Unca 'Azz!"

"Yes. You will be a great spybot just like Uncle Jazz." He agreed, though on the inside he was not so keen on her being put into dangerous situations like that. Perhaps he could convince her to just be a medic instead of a spybot and a medic? Primus knew that her sensory skills would be an invaluable asset for assessing not just the mental state of bots, but the physical state as well.

"Neaky! Neaky! Jus' like Unca 'Azz!" She bobbed her helm sending her wire pig tails bouncing wildly about her frame. Her bouncing suddenly stopped as her doorlets twitched and spread out with the bottoms tilted out slightly. A smile tugged at her mouth components before she pointed at the door. "Sides and Sunny comin' back! Bwing Unca 'Azz and Pwowl!"

Sure enough when he turned to look towards the med bay door it slid open a split astrosecond before Jazz shot into the room and rushed by him to get to his sparkling's pen. The smaller mech lifted her out of the glass container and spun her around making her squeal. "We gonna car'e da pumpkin baby girl! Jacky ma'e it super big for yo'!"

"Big! Big!" Lilydancer clapped her servos together repeatedly. "Unca 'Azz 'elp cawve it wit' me?"

"Yup ahm gonna help ya!" Jazz grinned. "Come on baby girl! We go''a go to da main hanga!" Jazz started for the door but suddenly paused to turn back to him, raising an expectant optic ridge over his visor. "Comin' Ratchet?"

"Yes. I would not miss it." Work could wait so long as he could spend time with his sparkling. Primus knew that he didn't get enough time to do that as it was.

Together all of them left the med bay behind as Lilydancer chattered excitedly about her pumpkin. All while Sideswipe and Sunstreaker grimaced, while the former subconsciously rubbed at his chassis nervously.

What was that all about?

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

"What the ever loving pit is that?" Ratchet exclaimed after Sides pulled the orange monstrosity from his subspace. The CMO stalked around the human sized pumpkin and poked it with his pedes, looking between Red's excited form and her pumpkin. "How is she even supposed to carve it? It's as big-no it's bigger than she is!" He exclaimed.

Shifting on his pedes he pointed at Wheeljack tiredly. "Jacky genetically altered it. Don't ask me how. Don't ask me why."

"I cawve! I cawve!" Red chanted happily from where she was wriggling desperately in Prowl's arms in an attempt to get free so that she could carve her 'pumpkin'. Prowl looked reluctant to put her anywhere near the monstrosity though, probably because of the disgusting smell.

However a sharp look from Jazz and Sides had the SIC hesitantly sitting his and Sides's sparkmate down on the floor. Red instantly shot towards the pumpkin and tapped it curiously. "Big! Big! I cawve it no'!"

Lennox's little girl was just staring at the huge thing almost fearfully, while Lennox himself was just shaking his head almost tiredly. "I had to get her a pumpkin...with no stipulations on genetic engineering." The NEST Commander sighed as he looked between his femling and her pumpkin, to Red and her's warily. "Alright Lilydancer this is how you carve a pumpkin. Watch me and do what I do."

Lennox sat down beside his little femling and pulled her into his lap as he retrieved a knife from his pocket and stabbed it into the top of the pumpkin. He started cutting it in a circular motion around the top. "You have to cut the top off so that you can clean the guts out okay?" He instructed her.

Sides sat down with Red and stabbed the top of her pumpkin with his partially engaged wrist blade. He cut around the top in a circular motion as Lennox had instructed, much more quickly and efficiently than their human ally was able to.

"Ok so once you have the top cut off you reach in and-well you will have to literally go in..." Lennox trailed off, once more eyeing Red's pumpkin warily. He shook his head and lifted Annabelle over the top of her pumpkin so that her chubby little servos could reach in and dig the slimy strands of orange slag out of it. "Clean the guts and seeds out."

Red looked at him once, then back at her pumpkin, before she chirped and scrambled up over the opening in her pumpkin in a flash before Sides could stop her.

Her little body tumbled over into the orange monstrosity making him cringe. Now she was going to need to be washed from helm to pede to get the gunk off of her! And the smell! Oh Primus the smell was awful!

She seemed to have no qualms about it however, because not even three astroseconds later her little servos reached over the side and dumped a load full of slimy pumpkin guts and seeds out onto the floor of the hangar. "I gut! I gut!" She chanted as she squirmed around in her pumpkin making it vibrate and wriggle with her movements.

He could hear her scratching the sides of the pumpkin to get the gunk out...ugh it was so disgusting!

Her little helm popped out next, covered, and he meant covered, in the nasty gunk. It was dripping down her face plates, it was all over her antennas, her entire helm was shining a sickly orange color. And she could not look any less unconcerned about it as she tossed more guts onto the floor near Annabelle and Lennox. "Ma'e cean! Ma'e cean! Cawve! Cawve!"

She disappeared back inside her pumpkin as more bots, and even the other hybrids gathered to watch. By the time she came back up again the entire base was there watching.

"Awww why didn't I get a pumpkin too?!" Annie whined from where she was sitting on Bluestreak's shoulder.

He snorted when the other hybrids and bots shot her varying looks of amusement or exasperation. Not that he cared much for looking away from the mess that his sparkmate was making by tossing pumpkin guts all over the concrete floor of the hangar.

"Ok i' cean now!" Red chirped happily as she attempted to heft herself out of her pumpkin. Her servos were to slick with guts so she could not grip the smooth surface of the orange monstrosity to lift herself out. She trilled in irritation. "No can ge' ou'!" Her little doorlets flapped furiously to try and propel her forward to no avail.

Sides reached in and lifted her out before placing her slimy form back on the floor. "Good thing that Opi took you out of your costume earlier huh Lily?" His twin grimaced and wiped some slime from his servos in open disgust. "If not it would have been ruined when you cleaned your pumpkin."

"I cean it! I cean it!" She chanted. "No' we' cawve it!"

When she looked to Lennox he paused in drawing a face onto Annabelle's pumpkin to address her. "Next you make a face on the pumpkin and carve it into it."

"Cawve fa'e?"

"Yup. Carve a face." Lennox reached for a knife and passed it over to Sides, who hesitated before handing it to Red.

"Be careful Lily." Sides warned her.

"M'kay! Be caweful!" As soon as she said that she turned and stabbed the pumpkin rather viciously, roughly a foot down from the top. She dragged her knife down in a straight line and jerked it out before stabbing it again in a straight line at the bottom.

She cut out a square for an optic...and promptly tried to eat the piece of the pumpkin that she had just carved. Almost immediately after sticking it into her mouth components she spat it back out violently. "Ucky!" She threw the piece across the room and went back to stabbing her pumpkin.

The other optic she carved was a triangle...then she carved a circle nose onto it. All while chanting, 'cawve! cawve! cawve!'

When she came to the mouth she pursed her mouth components and made a large jagged circular cut for the top of the mouth. She repeated until she had cut out a gaping mouth with sharp teeth. "Jus' ike Opi whe' he ge's mad!" She added by way of explanation when Sides looked at her in confusion.

Ratchet huffed and scowled at the pumpkin. "I do not look like that my spark."

"Uh huh! Whe' 'ou get mad at Sides an' Sunny 'ou do!"

"I can see the resemblance." Sides piped in, making Ratchet glare at him in response. He picked the top up and sat it back on top of Red's pumpkin. "It looks good Lily. You did a really good job!" He praised her.

"Yea I do good!"

Several bits of slimy stingy...things dripped onto the floor with a dull plopping sound...from where they were hanging on her doorlets. It was completely grossing him out! "Ok baby you carved it! Can we go and clean you up so that we can give you the other part of your surprise now?"

"Uh huh! Supise! Supise!"

Thank Primus! Stepping forward he quickly snatched her up from the floor so that he could take her to the wash racks.

"Hey wait for me!" Sides protested.

He didn't slow down in the least...she was smearing slime all over him! He could almost feel his paint rotting away!

When he reached the wash racks he practically ran in and started up the nearest faucet, and without releasing her stepped under it. A happy squeal met his audio receptors when he moved her around in his servos so that he could use a wash rag to clean the slime off of her.

Her little doorlets started beating happily sending drops of water shooting in all directions. She reached up and made grabbing motions at the faucet while he cleaned her with solvent.

Luckily the slime came off relatively easy and did not seem to stain or damage her paint. So he had her cleaned off before Sides had even caught up to them.

As soon as his twin walked in the door he handed Red over to be dried off while he washed his servos and arms of the gunk. It was so fragging disgusting! No more than disgusting! It was downright revolting! He couldn't get it off of him fast enough!

"I'll go get Lily dressed in her costume while you have a freak out over your paint Sunny." Sides snickered before he turned and carted their sparkmate from the room.

But he was too busy scrubbing slime out of his servo plating to really care at the moment. Note to self: never let Red carve a pumpkin ever again!

* * *

><p>(Lilydancer's POV)<p>

Sides put her in her pretty costume so that she could get her surprise! He made her wires pretty and gave her a pretty bag!

And opi got to come too! And Sunny! She was pretty sure that Sunny was mad about the yucky punkin guts earlier though. He was scowling still... But that was ok because she got to have a surprise!

"We go no'?" She bounced in opi's arms excitedly. If only she could walk this would be even better! "Come opi! Le's go! Ge' supise!"

"Ok. Ok." Her opi chuckled.

He was happy. She liked it when her opi was happy! It made her spark feel warm! She trilled to show her impatience...she wanted her surprise!

"We're going light of my spark. We're going." Her opi carried her out of the door to Sides's and Sunny's quarters. He didn't go very far though, only to Bluestreak's door where he sat her down.

"Opi tis no supise! T'is Buesteak's woom!" She pouted...no surprise. Opi and Sides promised a surprise!

"Knock on the door." Sides instructed her.

Leaning forward onto her servos and knees she tapped on Blue's door once. "Bue open da doo'!"

Her doorwings twitched when she felt Blue's spark come closer to the door. He was...excited! Maybe there was a surprise after all! She waited until he opened the door to his room.

"Say trick or treat!" Sides encouraged her.

Her spark jumped in excitement! She got to trick or treat! "Twick ow tweat Bue! Giv' cany!"

Blue twitched his wings and smiled at her. "What are you supposed to be?" He asked as he retrieved a bright pink energon candy wrapped in a small plastic bag, and a orange candy and dropped them into her pretty bag.

"I Boo! Gi'e mowe cany!" She pouted. He only gave her two pieces!

Blue chuckled at her quietly. "Sorry angelwing! I only had those pieces of candy. But I think that Arcee had some too."

Her spark jumped in excitement again. "Kay Bue! Go see Cee no'!" She went to crawl away, only to have her opi pick her up and bring her back to Blue's door. "Opi go see Cee!"

"Say thank you to Bluestreak for the candy."

Oh right! She forgot to say thank you! "Anks Bue!"

"You're welcome Angelwing!" Blue smiled softly at her. "Enjoy trick or treating!" He stepped back into his room.

"I will Bue! Bye!"

As soon as the door to his room was closed she pointed down the hall at Cee's room. "Cee! Get cany!"

Opi sat her back on the floor so that she could crawl to Cee's room where she knocked on the door like she did Blue's. She knew what to do this time when Cee opened the door even! "Twick ow tweat!"

Cee smiled at her and gave her energon candy! And real human candy! Opi didn't like it when she ate human food so she would have to hide her candy before he took it from her! "Aww you're so cute Lilydancer! What are you supposed to be anyways?"

Just like with Blue she answered, opi said it was polite to answer questions after all! "I Boo!"

"From your favorite movie?" Cee smiled at her.

"Yeah! Anks fow cany Cee! I go see Unca 'Azz no'!"

"Have fun Lilydancer!" Cee called out from behind her when she crawled away from the door.

She chirped and turned the corner to the hallway where Optimus's room, and Uncle Jazz and Prowl's rooms were. She stopped at Optimus's room and knocked on the door.

"Twick ow tweat! Gi'e cany!" She chirped when Opti opened the door.

Opti only smiled at her and gave her energon candy! "You look very pretty Lilydancer. You are Boo from Monster's inc yes?"

"Yea'! Yea'! Yo' know!" She cheered! Opti knew what she was for Halloween! Opti knew everything! "'Ou com' twick ow tweatin wit' me too?"

Opti only shook his helm sadly. He felt sad lots of the time. She didn't like it when he felt sad. "I'm afraid not Lilydancer. I have some work to do, but perhaps I can play with you some tomorrow."

A sad chirp left her vocaliser...Opti was always busy. Opi said that it was cause he was very important. She still wasn't sure what exactly he meant by that, but when she was older she would be allowed to know. "M'kay Opti! Pay wit' me mowwow!"

"I will. Have fun Lilydancer." He stepped back into his room and shut the door.

When it clicked shut she turned and started towards Uncle Jazz's room. She only wished that she could walk to Uncle Jazz's room so she could show him that she was a big femme now! But every time she tried she fell down! It made her mad! All the other bots could walk!

She was going to walk to Uncle Jazz's door! She was not a little sparkling anymore!

Stopping in the middle of the hallway she brought her pretty bag to her mouth components and bit down on it so that she didn't drop it. Jazz said that spybots had to be resourseful...she didn't know what that meant, but she was pretty sure that it meant you have to make the most with what you had. So she was going to use her denta to make sure that she didn't drop her bag!

Sitting on her aft plating she brought her servos to her pedes and pushed herself up from the floor. She felt her opi and both Sides and Sunny hovering near her, but she ignored them so that she could focus on standing up.

Getting her pedes under her was easy enough, and within a klik she was upright. Now came the hard part...keeping her wings from dragging her down. Her first instinct was to balance her weight in the center of her back struts, but opi had told her that she had to balance it more in her shoulders. Leaning forward slightly, she focused on balancing herself out by holding her shoulders slightly forward.

Yay! She was standing all on her own! And she didn't fall down! Now all she had to do was keep her wings from doing the excited flapping! If they did that she would fall down!

Keeping them completely still she shifted one of her pedes forward and took her first step. And she didn't fall! She took a step and didn't fall down! Next she shifted her other pede and took another step forward...then another, and another, and she kept going until she managed to walk all the way to uncle Jazz's door. "Opi I walkin! All by maself!"

Opi sent his happiness and pride to her through their sparkbond, and she felt Sides and Sunny do the same. Somehow she had a bond with them, but it felt different than her guardian bond with Uncle Jazz and Prowl. It felt stronger though so she liked it.

She made it all the way to Uncle Jazz's door and knocked on it. Taking her bag out of her mouth components she held it out expectantly. "Twick ow tweat!" She chirped when the door slid open to reveal her Uncle Jazz.

He looked so proud of her too! "Loo' a' baby girl! All gro'n up and walkin' no'! Ain't she cu'e Prowler?"

Uncle Prowl came over and smiled at her! "Yes she is. Did you walk all by yourself Lilydancer?"

"Uh huh! I show' ou!" She turned and walked, slowly down the hallway. It was hard, and she felt like she might fall sometimes, but she made it all the way to the end of the hall all on her own! Then she turned back around and walked all the way back to Uncle Jazz and Prowl! And opi and Sides and Sunny! "See? I do it maself! I big femme now!"

Uncle Jazz grinned at her. "Yo' sure are! And big femmes ge' can'y!" He reached into his subspace and dropped two pieces of energon candy into her bag.

Uncle Prowl did the same thing and dropped human candy into her bag. "You did very well Lilydancer. And you balanced yourself better than most Praxians do their first time walking."

"Weally?" Yay she made Uncle Prowl proud of her! That made her happy! He even smiled at her! His little smile!

"Really."

Her doorwings started fluttering against her back really hard because she was so happy! She didn't even care that they made her fall down! She didn't even care that her opi had to catch her so that she didn't hurt herself! All she cared about was that she made Uncle Prowl and Jazz proud of her! She was a big femme now!

Soon she's be all grown up! Then she'd be able to be a spybot like Uncle Jazz! And she could be a medic like opi! As soon as she was all grown up! She hoped she got to grow up soon! But first she had to finish trick or treating for the energon candy! "Unca 'Azz come twick or tweatin wit' me!"

"Sure baby girl. I can com'. Prowler can' tho' cause he's busy. But I can com'."

"M'kay! I see Unca Pwowl tomowwow!"

Uncle Jazz helped her up and held her servo so that it was easier for her to walk. "Bye Unca Pwowl! I go twick ow tweatin now!"

Uncle Prowl nodded at her with his small smile. "Do not eat too much candy before you go into recharge Lilydancer." He warned her.

"I won'!" There was no such thing as too much candy anyways! And she got to trick or treat with opi, Uncle Jazz, and Sides and Sunny!

This was the best day ever!

* * *

><p>(Ratchet's POV)<p>

Sometime around three AM he was roused from recharge. At first he was confused, but then he remembered that his sparkling was recharging in her tank in his quarters.

He could feel her nausea through their sparkbond... Sighing, he rolled over and hopped off of the berth to walk across the room and open her tank.

His sparkling stared up at him covered in pink energon candy purge... "Opi I fee' ucky..."

He picked her up and held her over a wastebin just in time for her to purge rather noisily into it.

Trick or treating had definitely not been a good idea... No definitely not. And as he looked into her tank and saw several pieces of poorly hidden candy he decided to just let her sleep on his berth tonight. That way her short sparkling attention span would not tempt her to eat more and make herself even more sick.

Then tomorrow he would have to clean her tank out... Sneaky little femme!

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! A Halloween tribute even if it is a little late! There were so many ideas that I had that I had to make a Halloween chapter! Oh and I am going to put a poll up for Lilydancer's alt modes! She is going to have two since she will get her first one for her smaller frame next chapter! She also needs a larger one so this vote is going to give the voters the ability to vote twice! One for each section! Please do vote!<p> 


	37. Chapter 37

Ok so the Buell Firebolt XB12R, and the 2014 Corvette stingray won the vote! Alright well on with the story! I DO NOR OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>(Lily's POV)<p>

Today was a big day! She couldn't even contain her excitement as she bounced alongside Sunny, Sides, and her Opi towards the hangar. Today was the day that she got to pick out her fist alt mode! And her opi and her best friends were going to take her on her first drive too!

She was so excited that she couldn't even recharge last night! Her wings were flapping against her back in her excitement and her antennas were flashing a bright excited yellow! Her spark was warm and thrumming happily.

Feelings of amusement and pride, along with happiness were wafting through her bond with the three mechs walking alongside her. {Excited baby?}

{Yeah! I get to go driving now!} She answered Sunny with a grin. {Come on! You guys are going too slow!} She grabbed a hold of all of them, using servos and wires, and dragged them towards the hangar even faster!

Sides chuckled at her and poked her over their bond teasingly. "We shouldn't be surprised huh? All sparklings are excited to get their first alt mode. Lily's no different."

By that time they had made it to the hangar where almost everybot on base was gathered. She had already sensed them so she wasn't surprised that they were there, nor did she really care when she saw three sleek crotchrockets waiting for her. With a squeal she dashed over to them and started circling them as she simultaneously looked their makes, models, and years up on the internet.

There was a BMW HP2 Sport and a BMW K1200S that she liked but...her favorite was the Buell Firebolt XB12R. It was sleek just like the other two, but something about it just called to her.

She scanned it, parts of her armor shifting down slightly to better fit her new alt mode. Her opi had told her not to worry about her wings, that they would fold into her body since her first alt mode would not have doors. They still sat high on her back though for right now even though her armor was more rounded at the shoulders and hips now.

Smiling manically she turned and skipped over to her opi happily. "Look opi! I did it!" She cheered, wings flapping in her excitement to the point that she almost fell over.

Her opi smiled at her warmly. "Yes you did. It was a good choice too." He leaned down to her level and gently touched one of her doorwings. "But do you know how to use it?"

She cooed in confusion...was he meaning her transformers COG? Or how to drive? He had told her that transforming for them was instinctual, that even a sparkling could do it. A short confused trill escaped her vocaliser as she stepped back and willed her parts to shift into her new alt mode.

Her body responded instantly, breaking apart, parts shifting around her internal systems. Her wires faded into a dull black and formed her wheels, and her door wings folded up under her new frame. Every part settled down around her spark chamber, processor, and internal systems.

She shifted on her two wheels and revved her small engine once. "Like this?" She spoke out using her vocaliser. A vague thought that it would be seen as weird for a bike to be talking passed through her processor, but she shook it off. The other bots probably did it, and she was a big femme now too. She even had her ALT MODE!

Opi chuckled at her and tapped her helm. "Yes and no. I was asking if you knew how to drive?"

Oooooh! Well in that case no she didn't! "Nope! Show me!" She giggled and revved her engine again. The hardest part of this mode was going to be balancing it so that she didn't crash. If she had her door wings she could use them to even herself out, like a stabilizer. But she didn't!

The loud sound of parts shifting and scraping against each other met her audio receptors then, four different sets. She felt the sparks of Arcee, Sides and Sunny, and her opi pulse strongly once as they all shifted down to their respective alts.

Arcee rolled over to her sidling up alongside her. "Ok Lilydancer, today we are going to learn how to drive as a motorcycle! The first thing that you have to learn is that driving as a motorcycle is much different than driving as a car. That being because of the obvious factor of balance. As a motorcycle you have to learn to keep your balance so as not to crash!"

Her wheels itched...she wanted to just go! Her opi sent a strong warning to her over the bond stopping her before she just started her engine and rushed off somewhere. But ohh how she wanted to just do that!

"You have to shift your weight to counteract the lean of your body to prevent crashes! Like this!" Arcee started her engine and shot forward. The purple femme turned sharply bringing her frame down close to the ground, then shifted her weight sharply in the opposite direction to bring herself up before she crashed into the ground. "So shift your weight to balance yourself ok?"

Chittering excitedly she started her own engine up and inched forward shakily at first. Her frame was unsteady...and she felt like she was going to fall! Irritation coursed through her spark almost immediately making her throw caution to the wind. Before opi or the twins could stop her she gunned her gas and shot forward. "WEEEEEE!"

"LILYDANCER!" Her opi shouted, tires screeching as he took off after her.

But she still didn't stop! She shot from the hangar even while bots like Uncle Prowl were yelling at her to slow down or stop! But it was so fun to have her tires rubbing against the ground! And she was going so fast too! Besides, opi and either Sides, Sunny, or Arcee would catch her soon. They were chasing her after all!

In fact Sides was right behind her right now! She laughed and turned sharply in the opposite direction, taking Arcee's earlier advice and sharply shifting her weight in the other direction so that she didn't crash into the ground! She brought her frame back upright and gunned it again despite the warning growl she received over the bond with opi.

Her engine screamed loudly when she shot off, tearing up dirt and sand, getting her paint dirty...Sunny would be mad at her! She giggled and shot around the outside of the base, bringing her frame down close to the ground as she skidded around the corner.

"LILYDANCER STOP RIGHT NOW!" Her opi shouted again.

Her spark was suddenly hit with his absolute irritation and worry over her well being... She skidded slowly to a stop and sulked as they caught up to her. No fun... Shifting metal hit her audio receptors again, roughly two astroseconds before her frame was yanked up from the ground.

Her opi's angry optics met her in a glare. "Shift back now."

With a whiny trill she activated her transformation COG again. Her frame shifted back to it's normal appearance, the more sleek appearance of her new alt mode. She pouted at her creator and drooped her door wings down, in the hopes that she was too cute for opi to stay mad at her.

He shook his helm at her and swatted her little aft firmly. "You could have been hurt Lilydancer! Having a motorcycle as your first alt is harder than having something with four wheels! What if you had lost your balance and crashed?!"

"But opiii I didn't crash though!" She whined. Even Sunny and Sides were giving her 'the look'. And she had so much fun for them to ruin it too!

"But you could have! This was your first drive sweetling! You aren't used to your new alt mode yet!" Her opi admonished her. "Your frame is still small Lilydancer! You may be bigger than Arcee, but you are still just as easy to damage! If you had crashed into something it would not have been good!"

For each word that he cut into her she drooped her door wings down even more in defeat. Opi was really mad at her... She felt bad, and she pushed that emotion into his spark in the hopes that he would understand. She hadn't done it to try and make him mad! It was just...she was all about speed! Sitting still or going slow was almost painful for her!

Opi's optic ridges narrowed on her form. "You will have practice with Arcee or the twins every day! You will listen to them! Every single word! I do not want a repeat of this stunt again! Do you understand?"

"Yes opi." She murmured quietly. They always babied her! Well with Sides and Sunny it was more like...she didn't know really. It was like they were as worried as everybot else, but for similar and different reasons. She really didn't understand the bond that they shared. It wasn't like what she had with opi, of Uncle Jazz or Prowl.

It was stronger and more close linked...like they were in her very spark sometimes. But she just didn't understand it! Sometimes when she looked at them her systems got all jittery making her tanks feel like she was going to purge. She always hid it from everybot, even her opi and Uncle Jazz... She just wished that she understood what was going on...

Opi said that soon she would have another growth spurt, then she would be in her young adult frame. As it stood right now she reached Sunny's waist roughly. Soon she would grow into her adult frame, then maybe she would be allowed to know more things!

But for now her opi was upset and she knew better then to comment when he turned and carried her back into the base. She had lessons with Uncle Prowl today anyways. After that she had her servo to servo combat training with Uncle Jazz and Ironhide.

Today was going to be a long day.

* * *

><p>Her back struts hurt from staying hunched over a datapad for so long, but she knew better then to ask Uncle Prowl if she could do something else. He was upset with her earlier stunt with her alt mode so he had barely spoken to her since they had come into his office.<p>

Right now he had her reading up on the Golden Age, history of Cybertron. She had already read it and studied it because of her curious nature, but she didn't want to tell him that in case he got mad. That and the bond was closed rather tight so she couldn't communicate through it.

It made her spark hurt. A soft pained chirp left her vocaliser...

Uncle Prowl looked up from whatever he was working on and raised an optic ridge when he saw that she was not reading what he had assigned her. "Littlespark why aren't you reading your datapad?"

"I already read it before." She pouted, door wings drooping low on her back until they disappeared under her long wires.

Uncle Prowl sighed. "Why did you not say something sooner?" He pulled the datapad she had been reading away and placed it in his desk. His servos rifled around in the drawer for something before he pulled out another datapad and handed it to her. "This datapad is on Praxian customs. I want you to study this when you go back to your quarters tonight."

She took it with a confused chirp and subspaced it. "Later? What are we going to do now?" She twitched her door wings up in an alert V shape. Not one meant to intimidate, but a slightly more relaxed set that showed that she was confused.

A small smile pulled at Uncle Prowl's mouth components. "I see that you have been paying close attention to what Bluestreak and Smokescreen have been teaching you on door wing language." He pointed out quietly.

"Yup! Blue and Smokey are good teachers!" She chirped.

A soft snort left his vocaliser. "Just do not learn their more...annoying and distasteful habits."

Ohhh like Smokey's gambling and Bluestreak's constant talking. Well maybe she shouldn't tell anybot that Smokey had bet her to prank Uncle Hide later? No she would keep that to herself! "So what are we going to do today?" She clicked curiously.

"Well we are going to address your earlier stunt with your alt mode." Uncle Prowl's optic ridges narrowed just slightly as he finally opened the bond and fueled his displeasure into her. "Why did you take off without permission earlier? You could have been hurt."

Trilling tiredly, she sulked even lower in her small chair. "I don't like going slow! And it made me feel like I was going to fall more than when I was going fast! I like going fast like uncle Jazz and Sides and Sunny!" Uncle Jazz even told her that she would probably be faster than them when she was all grown up! She was so excited about that!

Her guardian's mouth components pulled down into an even deeper frown as his door wings twitched down once in irritation. Not that she could not feel that emotion through their bond already! "You must learn to adhere to the rules Lilydancer. They are there to ensure your safety and the safety of other bots."

She whined loudly. "But I didn't break any rules!" She protested.

"You did. Several in fact."

"Like what?"

Another irritated twitch of his door wings. "There is a speed limit in non emergency situations that must be adhered to on Base grounds. And there is a speed limit in the hangar which you also did not adhere to."

Speed limits? BORING! She twitched her own door wings downwards once in irritation! "But-but! Uncle Prowl it was fun!"

A sharp reprimand hit her through their bond making her squeak and fall silent. Uncle Prowl looked slightly angry at her...and she was worried that he might glitch if she kept being bad. "No more speeding in the hangar. No more being insubordinate to your elder bots. You will listen and follow orders. Do we understand each other?"

Just like with her opi she drooped in defeat and nodded sadly. "Yes Uncle Prowl." She cooed despondently. Everybot was mad at her! She sniffled, sadness overcoming her spark and making her want to leak. A gentle digit tilted her helm back.

Uncle Prowl gently wiped her energon tears away and picked her up so that he could cradle her against his chassis. "I am only being hard on you because I care about you Littlespark. The same can be said for everybot on base. They will only ever get after you because they care about you."

She dropped her helm onto Uncle Prowl's chassis and snuggled into him, listening to the relaxing thrum of his spark. "Kay." She chirped. There was a moment of silence where Uncle Prowl froze. She realized why an astrosecond later when another presence slid into her helm.

_**[Hey baby girl! Uncle Jazz i' comin' ta get'cha fo' defense trainin'! Be 'here in two k'iks!]**_

_**[Kay.]** _She drooped down against Prowl more, this time in nervousness. Uncle Jazz told her that today she was going to be training without her heightened sensory skills. The only skills that she was allowed to use was her normal Praxian ability to catch vibrations with her door wings. That was not something she was as adept at yet.

_**[You will do fine. Jazz and Ironhide will not push you too hard your first time training without your more heightened senses.]**_

_**[Are you sure Uncle Prowl? You don't improve unless somebot pushes you harder.]**_

A sense of pride wafted through their bond. _**[I am sure littlespark. And it is good that you understand that one must push themselves to better their skills. I trust that you will understand that Jazz and the other bots are pushing you to better yourself when the day comes. Not that they are being hurtful of purposefully cruel.]**_

_**[I will.]** _She was still nervous but...Uncle Jazz and Uncle Hide would not hurt her. She was sure of it.

The door to Uncle Prowl's office slid open revealing Uncle Jazz and Hide. "Yo' read' baby girl?" Uncle Jazz grinned at her behind his visor.

"Yeah." Turning around she hugged Uncle Prowl and kissed his cheek plates. "See you tomorrow Uncle Prowl!" She chirped once before she hopped off of his lap and dashed across the room to sidle up alongside Uncle Hide and Uncle Jazz.

"Pay attention to what your instructors are saying Littlespark. I will see you tomorrow." Her black and white guardian waved at her once before going back to whatever datapad he had been working on before they started talking.

A servo grabbed her's and tugged her towards the training room. She followed along obediently...like Uncle Prowl had told her to, when all she really wanted to do was run around and get into all kinds of trouble! But she had promised! So she forced her youngling programming to subside so that she could focus.

When they walked into the training room it was completely empty. Uncle Hide walked into the center of the room and gestured for her and Uncle Jazz to come over to where he was standing. "Ok babyspark, today you are going to be practicing using your other senses in combat. The reason for this being that there may be times where you find your stronger senses disabled. In those instances you need a back up, another way to fight and defend yourself. We all need to be prepared for the unexpected."

Uncle Jazz took a stance across from her, pedes spread out one slightly in front of the other, and servos fisted and raised up in front of him. "Com' o' baby girl! Ta'e ya stanc'!"

Uncle Hide prompted her so she took her own stance, only her's was slightly different than Uncle Jazz's. She turned her body to the side and bent her left leg at the knee joint out in front of her, her right leg she kept slightly bent to catch traction. Her servos were fisted, one held up in front of her, and the other laying sideways across her chassis but pushed out from her slightly.

"Deactivate your high depth perception and only leave your vibration sensors on."

Sighing nervously, she tapped her system functions on her HUD and deactivated her high depth sensory skills. The feeling of her panels powering down almost made her panic, wings twitching wildly in an attempt to intake more information than what the were being given. It almost made her feel blind! She couldn't see the electrical impulses in Uncle Jazz or Uncle Hide's frames! Nor could she sense the other spark signatures of the bots on base anymore.

Her spark started racing with panic! Was this what it was like to be the other bots? She felt blind deaf and defenseless! Even the slight vibrations that she could sense with her normally unused vibration panels was not comforting her in any way.

Nor did the swift sharp vibration or movement from behind her! Ducking down she rolled under a swift kick from Uncle Jazz and lashed out wildly with her own kick. Her wings twitched, panic growing when she didn't see his impulses!

She could feel him, the vibrations from his movements a clear beacon but...

Her wings perked up again when a sharp vibration in the air clued his location to right in front of her a split astrosecond before he was there throwing punches at her. She ducked and weaved her body like she had been shown both by Uncle Hide and Jazz, and by Sunny and Sides.

She was narrowly avoiding them thanks to her state of panic, and her lowered sensory perception. Until today she had no real idea how much she had relied on it. But as she caught a punch square in the cheek plates and was sent sprawling over her own pedes, she decided that this training, as frustrating as it was turning out to be was in fact essential.

But as her body slammed into the floor she also decided that it was going to be a major pain! She was up on her pedes as soon as she landed, Uncle Hide's words about never leaving yourself prone and weak ringing loudly in her helm.

She was up in time to duck under another kick aimed for her helm, and spinning around she dropped low and went to sweep Uncle Jazz's legs. Where she knew all of these movements she didn't really know, she had not been taught them yet by her instructors. It was more instinctual, but if it kept her from getting her aft beat too badly she would follow her spark's subtle lead.

Her kick hit nothing but air as her Guardian leapt up over the top of her. She picked up the vibrations and rolled again, tucking her door wings in so as not to damage them. Her pedes skidded across the concrete sending dust scattering, even that caused a vibration! There were so many vibrations that it was hard to keep track of the one that mattered!

There were only split astroseconds before he was in her face, or attacking her from behind that she had to sense HIS vibration and react! Her door wings perked up standing straight on her back as her and Uncle Jazz circled each other. She was trying to see if there was any distinguishing feature that she could pick out about his vibrations! Something that would better help her to single him out!

Before she had enough time to submit to her task he lunged for her again. She caught the vibrations just an astrosecond too late and was struck in the chassis. Hard. Her frame went sprawling towards the floor again, but she caught herself on her servos and flipped herself up and over onto her pedes again.

Her engines were working hard, vents working overdrive to expel the heat from her frame. She kept her optics trained on her opponent...wings poised...

He suddenly twitched, that single movement catching her attention, before he lunged again.

She started rapidly ducking down under punches, blocking what she was unable to dodge with her forearms. Her door wings were rapidly trying to intake more information to aid her in her fight, the subtle vibrations coming off of her opponent only giving her minimal time to alter her defense so as not to get hit.

There wasn't even time for her to attack him! His slightly larger frame was just too fast for her right now! It was all that she could do to not get hit every astrosecond! If she had her in depth sensory skills she could dodge more easily, thus allowing her to attack him but...

"OOF!" A sharp pain went screaming through her mid section when she was hit with another sharp strike. She skidded back on her pedes, keeping her frame low to balance herself. A sharp hiss of pain escaped from between her clenched denta. Slag that hurt!

"Yo' gonna hit meh baby girl? O' are ya jus' gonna danc' round meh?" Jazz taunted her with a grin.

Her spark pulsed in anger at the blatant taunt. She loved her Uncle Jazz but right now she hated him! Getting to her pedes she flared her door wings and slapped them against her back struts threateningly. The sharp slap was meant to intimidate him, however it also caused a sharp influx of vibrations...

Her processor broke down the vibrations that echoed off the walls, painting a picture of the room. There were three other bots in the room besides her, Uncle Hide, and Uncle Jazz. All large built...and she had not even realized that they were there before. She peeked over her shoulder and caught Sunny's deep blue optics staring at her. Next to him was Sides, and besides him was her opi.

Narrowing her optic ridges in confusion, she repeated the motion and slapped her wing against her back struts. Once again the vibration accompanying the smack was sent across the room, bouncing off the walls, and making their way back to her sensitive wings. Her processor once more worked out a faint not very detailed picture of the room, only this time the most pressing matter was the mech poised to attack her from her front.

Her door wings flared as she ducked and dodged the attack again, more quickly this time. She got her pedes back under her and slapped her wings against her back again, more quickly taking in the information the vibrations were providing her with. She had no idea that she could see more easily and with more detail if she made sound!

Grinning she switched her lower wings and started rapidly tapping them against her lower hips to create a constant sound as she charged her opponent. She felt, heard, and saw him shift both through her optics, and through the sensitive panels in her wings, her lower wings painting a much more detailed picture when coupled with her optical intake.

Ducking down she swept under a sharp jab from Uncle Jazz and brought her elbow out striking him hard in the abdomen before he had time to dodge her.

This time he was sent skidding back a good distance, servo gingerly covering the good sized dent that she had caused. He grinned at her. "Dat's da wa' baby girl! Yo' jus' gotta fin' ou' wha' works bes' for yo'!"

She scowled. "I still like my other sensory skills better! I can't be quiet while doing this!" She gestured to her still loudly flapping lower door wings.

Uncle Jazz shrugged. "No. Buh if yo' don' get caugh' den yo' shouldn' hav' ta worry 'bout it."

She ex vented heavily, steam pouring out from her overheated engine. Normally sparing didn't last this long so she was quite tired...

"Why are you doing that anyways?" Her opi asked after he and the twins came over to stand near their sparing area. His optics were closely trained on her lower wings as they smacked against her lower back and hips repeatedly.

She hummed and stopped them because the noise was annoying even her. "Well Jazz wasn't making enough sound for me to track him accurately. So I started painting a better picture with my own sound."

Opi hummed thoughtfully. "That makes sense. And it helped?"

"Yeah." She shrugged lazily. It definitely had though! At least she had managed to hit Jazz this time! It was probably only because he was surprised that she had charged him, something that she hadn't done before even with her other senses. Normally she was instructed to defend not attack.

Sides snickered at Jazz. "You got hit by a youngling Jazz. Ouch your pride will never recover will it?" He slapped a servo on her shoulder gently and shook her while grinning at her. "Good job Lily."

"Yo' woul' get 'it a thousan' tim's Sides! Look at ya bi' shin' aft!"

She giggled at the two of them as they started to bicker.

"You did do well baby."

She looked up at Sunny and grinned while twitching her door wings in a wide umbrella like shape.

"Show off." Sunny snorted at her with a smirk.

For some reason her spark stuttered and her cheek plates heated in an energon blush. She clamped down on the bonds that she shared with everybot on base due to her own embarrassment. He looked so handsome...and she felt weird for thinking of him like that! He-he had practically raised her!

Sides and Jazz stopped bickering to look at her, opi was already staring at her with a raised optic ridge, and Sunny just looked confused. She coughed and jerked a thumb back over her shoulder awkwardly as she backed up towards the door. "Umm I'm gonna go and bug First Aid!" With that she turned and bolted out the door without a backwards glance.

What was she even thinking?! They were way older than her! AND they helped her opi and Guardians raise her!

Her spark stuttered again sending embarrassment racing through her as pictures of Sunny's face flashed through her processor again. An intense heat started up in her spark chamber and traveled down into her lower abdomen.

It was brief, the feeling fading quickly, leaving her feeling cold and empty. She sighed somewhat in relief as she skidded into the med bay where First Aid was. Maybe she could get some medical training done today to distract herself from her troubling thoughts.

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

Ever since that day in the training room their sparkmate had gone to great lengths to avoid them at all costs. She spent more time working in the med bay, or training with Jazz and Ironhide when they were out on patrol. When she wasn't doing that she was studying datapads for Prowl in her shared quarters with Ratchet.

It had only been a week since this behavior had started, and already his shared spark with Sunny was desperately yearning for the spark that they had bonded to.

Prowl had instructed them to let her have some space to sort out whatever was plaguing her processor. He was not so inclined to submit to the SIC's command. But Prowl had told them that Lily was going through a very difficult time in her frame's growth phase, and that it was even worse for Praxians than it was for normal bots.

So they had backed off and let her be where she wanted, and with who she wanted. They had watched her from a distance while she avoided them. Her frame had grown several more feet so that she was taller than Jazz, she came up to maybe their mid abdomens now. And she was filling out as well.

Her frame was becoming every bit as curvy and supple as her hybrid frame had been. Already her chassis was developing well, and her hips were molding into a nice hourglass shape. It was safe to say that she was not full grown yet, but that when she was she was going to be gorgeous.

It made it hard for them to stay away from her. Especially when she was talking to other mechs like Hot Rod, or Blaster, and Bee. It took everything in them to not go over and tear the other mechs away from her. Instinctively they wanted to restake their claim on her, their programming demanded it. But they resisted. As hard as it was, they resisted.

What hurt even more then anything was the bond that she kept tightly shut. They could not feel her, or hear what she was thinking and feeling. It was the first time that she had done it since she was a hybrid, but it hurt even more.

He didn't even realize that he was staring at her and pouting until Sunny roughly nudged him. He still didn't tear his optics away from where his femme was talking to Hot Rod of all mechs. "Yeah Sunny?" He responded in a gloomy and despondent tone.

Sunny growled. "Stop staring at her slagger! You heard what Prowl said! Let her come to us when she's ready!"

Sunny's words rang heavily in his helm...but he still couldn't seem to tear his optics away from her form. Her long red wires hung down to her lower thighs, fluttering around her shapely legs when she shifted even minutely. Yup. The sexual attraction was slowly coming back.

"Sides cut it out." Sunny admonished him both verbally and over their bond.

**'Look at her! She's growing up so fast.'**

Sunny sighed in exasperation. **'I know. I can see that too Sides.'**

He slumped down in defeat. **'Why doesn't she want to talk to us anymore?'**

Sunny was silent, his own feelings of pain and yearning filling their bond. **'I don't know Sides. Maybe...maybe she's embarrassed about her frame growing? Some femmes get awkward when they start filling out.'**

A snort escaped his vocaliser.** 'Yeah right. She's going to look like the femme equivalent to a human super model.'**

Sunny smacked him over the back of his helm. **'Shut it slagger! And stop whining! At least we get to take over her driving training today because Arcee is out on patrol!'**

He perked up. **'Really?'**

A snort.** 'Yes really. If you had been listening instead of pouting you would have known that.'**

Almost immediately he was nearly bouncing in his seat in excitement. And it only got worse when the femme in question turned to them and made her way over, albeit awkwardly. He jumped up from his seat and bounded over to her. "Hey Lily! Ready to practice driving?"

She shifted, looking nervous and embarrassed for some reason. "Yeah I guess."

He felt Sunny come up behind him. "Relax Red. We aren't going to bite you."

A small stain of energon appeared on her cheek plates. "Right." She murmured shifting nervously on her pedes.

All of her behavior was still confusing him...but he didn't comment on it as he placed a hand to her lower back struts and led her from the hangar. Prowl had commissioned a good sized track for her to practice on and that was where her driving sessions were held. At least until she was upgraded to her second alt mode, a car, that she could drive around more easily in public.

He led her over to the track and stepped away so that he could shift down to his sleek Lamborghini alt mode.

Catching the hint she shifted down to her Buell Firebolt alt mode and gave a rev of her engine. She rolled onto the cement and idled.

Sunny walked over to a control station and sat down in front of it. "Alright Red no running any stop signs this time." He warned her as he activated the obstacles, which consisted of stop signs, stop lights, and drones that served as human pedestrians.

The track shifted, creating various corners and turns for her to go around. Speed limit signs popped up from poles in the ground. Right now they were reading thirty five miles an hour, but Sunny could and would change them to keep her on her pedes.

He pulled up alongside her and idled lazily. "Ready sweetspark?"

"Yeah." She muttered distractedly.

They waited as a stop light shifted across a power line over them, showing red. It stopped right above them and flashed green.

Lily tore off from the starting line, maintaining the speed limit of course. One too many reprimands from Prowl and Optimus had probably made her overly cautious.

He followed after her, keeping pace with her back end to make sure that she didn't pull any stunts. They took their first turn, her slowing down like she was instructed to by Arcee. She straightened out as they came out of the corner and sped up again until she was going exactly thirty five miles an hour.

The entire time her frame was twitching and shifting, literally broadcasting her discomfort for anybot that wanted to look. Despite her obvious nervousness she took her turns slowly, paused to let the drones pass in front of her, and stopped at all the stop lights and signs.

Normally according to Arcee she did not hesitate to take corners a little too fast, sometimes she ran stop signs, and once she had even hit a drone... None of that behavior was being displayed here. He had to wonder why?

Sunny shifted the course, changing turns, signs, and drone placements. The speed limit was shifted to fifty five so that they could work their engines a little bit more.

Lily shot off like a rocket as soon as the speed limit was changed, taking turns much faster, frame literally coming flush against the ground on several occasions.

It was almost like she was trying to run from him every time he got too close to her. She would speed up, even going over the speed limit several times in her attempt to put distance between them. It was frustrating to say the least.

With a sigh he sped up until he as keeping pace beside her. "You're not going the speed limit Lily. Slow down. Take your corners slower, and stop driving around the pedestrian drones."

She didn't answer him in any way as she slowed down, just slightly.

He slowed down as well until he was directly beside her. Where he stayed throughout their entire training session. It did not once escape his notice that she put more distance between them than was necessary however. He resigned himself to asking her about it after they were finished.

They continued driving around the track for another half joor before concluding their practice.

Almost immediately after rolling off the track their sparkmate tried to make a run for it. Only Sunny picking her alt mode up halted her escape. "We need to talk Red."

Her frame quivered as she transformed back to her bi pedal mode to glare at Sunny. "About what? I have to go to the med bay to train with opi."

Shifting to bi pedal mode he stepped over to where Sunny was standing, coming to face level with her because of how high Sunny was holding her. Her bright almost gold optic met his briefly before they drifted down to the ground again. He sighed and poked her mid section playfully. "Why are you avoiding us Lily? Did we do something to upset you?"

Her door wings shifted lower on her back. "No." She shook her helm at them slowly.

"Then why are you avoiding us? Is there something bothering you?"

"No." Her door wings twitched once giving her away. "I just feel awkward lately..."

He furrowed his optic ridges at her. "Awkward? Why?"

Her antennas flashed an embarrassed pink. "I don't know. Opi says that it's normal but..."

Sunny looked at him in confusion. All he could do was shrug because he didn't understand either. Why would their sparkmate feel so awkward around them?

Before he could really question it Ratchet stepped out of the base and made his way over to them. When the CMO caught sight of his youngling hanging from Sunny's servo he scowled and snatched her up. "She is late for her training with me. You can see her later."

Lily turned to them once when Ratchet sat her on her pedes and started for the base. She frowned, door wings twitching nervously. "Umm do...do you want to help me with my melee weapons training tomorrow?"

He perked up and grinned. Whatever he could get he would take. "Of course Lily! Sunny and I are the best with melee weapons and servo to servo combat! We can help you with anything you need!"

She looked to Sunny next. "Sunny?"

His twin grunted. "I'll be there Red."

A bright smile pulled at her mouth plates. "Ok! See you tomorrow!" With that she turned and skipped off after Ratchet disappearing into the base.

Once she was out of sight he slumped down in depression. Primus how this was killing them!

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Poor Sides and Sunny! Poor Lily...feeling so awkward about her first crush! Sometimes I hate myself and my evil tendencies!<p> 


	38. Chapter 38

So I am working on chapters and plot for a new story and that is why I have not updated every single day like I normally do! That and I am having some health issues that I have had to go to numerous doctor's appointments for in the last week! So I apologize for not updating as much! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>She sat patiently as Sunny explained the proper way to pary a blade strike with her own blade. It was still awkward to be around them, but her opi said that it was because she was going into her maturing phase and they were mechs. So she would continue to feel strange around them.<p>

She still paid close attention to both mechs as they circled each other and struck out at each other with their swords, showing her how to move properly, how to block properly, and other such things. Her own sword felt heavy in her servo as she watched them.

The bond that she shared with them was dulled so that she could speak to them if she wanted to, however her every thought and emotion was only sensed if she wanted them to be. She knew that it was confusing them because she could sense that coming through their side of the bond... A bond that she still did not understand.

Her optics drifted down to the dull practice sword she was holding gingerly in her servos. They drifted back up after doing a cursory scan of her practice weapon. It would do to pay attention since she planned on using swords more than anything else besides her servos maybe. Spybots needed to be sneaky after all and guns were loud.

She watched Sides lunge at Sunny, the big golden mech bringing one blade up to catch both of Sides' blades with one of his. The other he used to swipe out at his twin, Sides' narrowly moving in time to avoid having his neck cables cut into.

They circled each other, her watching their every move closely, panels twitching as she took in the faint electromagnetic waves coming off of them and used it to predict their moves. A right flash of light lit up her HUD, emanating from Sunny's upper right hip joints and left arm, a split astrosecond before he lunged back at Sides'.

The sharp clang of blade striking blade rung out across the room as Sides' blocked the blow and spun around to block a second quick strike from his twin. He pushed back, wheels screeching as they skidded over the cement floor, forcing Sunny back slightly.

Sunny used his larger body mass to push back sending them into a deadlock. Neither wanted to give.

Both of them suddenly dropped their blades and stepped back from one another, each of them turning to where she was sitting. She stiffened, feeling embarrassed when her spark jumped in her chassis upon being scrutinized by them. It was embarrassing really...ever since a little over a week ago she had not even been able to make optic contact with them. They were just...too mechly...and handsome.

A furious blush tried to make it's way onto her cheek plates, she had to forcefully calm herself down to prevent it from happening. She cleared her throat and twitched her door wings nervously. "Umm what?"

Sides snapped out of his staring first. "Oh well we were thinking that it was time for you to spar with one of us."

Her spark stuttered in her chassis almost painfully. Spar? With one of them? Yes she needed to do that to improve herself but...there were reasons that it was a bad idea. One being that she might stare at them too much, thus getting her aft handed to her even worse than she was sure she was going to. Second being that they were fragging huge compared to her, and there was no way that she was going to be able to block their blows if they really wanted to do damage.

Maybe she wasn't blocking the bond as much as she thought she was, because Sunny came over and plopped down beside her on the bench she was on. He hesitated before sitting a huge servo on her shoulder plates. "We're not going to bite you Red. It's just going to be sparing, friendly sparing! We're going to help you work on your form."

Her optics met his deep blue ones...she wanted to blush again. They were both so big compared to her! Their presence itself was overwhelming her! The worst part was that she had absolutely no idea why! Even so, she knew that she needed to work on her form. "Ok. So who is going to beat my aft?" She joked and looked back between the two of them quickly.

Sides grinned and pointed at himself. "Me. Well I'm going to spar with you not beat your aft." He held a servo out to help her up, which she took gratefully.

Her chassis almost slammed into his lower abdomen from the force he used to yank her up with. Another blush threatened to overtake her face plates as she looked away in embarrassment. "Umm door panels off or on?"

"You can keep them on for now. Maybe later in training we'll have you turn them off, when you're big enough that we don't have to worry about breaking you in half so easily." Sides joked with a grin. He tugged her over into the center of the sparing room and backed off slightly. "Get into the stance that Sunny showed you."

Nodding quickly, she brought her claymore up in front of her and spread her legs and shoulders until they were level with each other. She kept her joints loose and firm, able to move fast and react, yet firm enough that she had enough power to block incoming attacks.

Sides looked her over before nodding once in approval and unsheating one of his own blades. "Alright Lily, I'm going to attack you now. I want you to block my blows or dodge them."

She nodded her helm once to show that she understood, door wings poised to catch any electro bursts.

His form stiffened a split astrosecond before a bright flash broke out across her HUD, emanating from his left side.

She ducked down avoiding an incoming thrust attack, weaving her body to the side to avoid a following downward swipe from his sword. Her HUD flashed again, several times in quick succession. She hurriedly started dodging the flurry of blows that he sent at her.

"You're supposed to block too!" Sides grinned at her without pausing in his attacks.

She grinned back and ducked down underneath him rolling to the side to get behind him. "Yes but it takes twice as much energy to swing and miss as it does to swing and hit. So the smart femme just dodges to tire an opponent out." Her HUD flashed again, Sides' form being painted a bright silver outline with flashes of blue breaking out across his frame as he laughed and lunged at her again.

He attacked her multiple times in quick succession, all with that same boyish grin on his mouth components. "That is true! But Sunny and I don't tire easily sweetspark! We're gonna be here all day."

She weaved between his attacks, HUD flashing constantly, too fast for her to follow it as easily as she normally did. Soon she would have to...

Her body was poised to dodge another attack only to have to alter her choice at the last second and block instead when he changed his course and attack almost too fast for her to react to. She brought her blade up just in time to block his own, small frame groaning at the amount of effort needed to hold him back.

He grinned at her again. "There! That's how you do it!" And then he shoved her.

Her frame skidded back across the floor, all from one little shove from him! She gritted her denta and focused on staying balanced so as not to fall on her wings which were completely alert.

She skidded to a stop almost fifteen feet away from where he has pushed her. Displeasure coursed through her spark upon seeing that he truly did look completely composed. Not fatigued in the least. In fact the grin just could not fall off his face plates it seemed. That did not make her happy...at all.

"C'mon Lily! Attack me! You know you want to!" Sides taunted her.

She released a dangerous growl and charged him... There was no way that she was going to land a direct attack and she knew that, but she was training to be a spybot, Uncle Jazz had taunt her how to feint attacks. Sides would be surprised!

Grinning she feinted right at the last second, oh but she knew that it wouldn't be enough to hit him. So when he moved to block her she used her pulse manipulation to make him overcompensate and leave his left side exposed. She went for it and swung her sword out at the more sensitive plating on his side.

Only to be intercepted by his other blade. "Sides! You said only one sword!" She protested loudly.

He raised an optic ridge at her. "No I didn't. I have two swords Lily, so why would I ever say that I will only use one? You just assumed that I was only going to use one."

She hissed, feeling completely irritated with him. Swinging her pede out she nailed him square in the knee joint making him yelp. "Cheater!"

He hopped up on one pede and rubbed at the joint that she had assaulted, all while pouting at her. "Was that really necessary? Little monster that hurt!"

"Good! Cheater!" She pouted and giggled at him when he continued to fuss over the small wound she had inflicted. He was such a lovable idiot!

"You were the one that cheated!" Sides gave her a half sparked glare. "You used pulse manipulation on me!"

"So? You're like three times my size! I have to use something to even out the whole playing field idiot!"

"That was so cheating! Cheater!"

"Hey stop copying what I said!"

"Cheater! How does it feel to be called that? You cheater! Look at what you did to my knee joint! You better fix this!"

"Nope!" She said popping the p for emphasis. Pointing a servo into his pouting face she grinned and poked his olfactory passage. "That is what you get for being a cheater! If you say that you're going to use one sword then only use one! I would have sooo had you!"

"Well next time you say that you won-"

"I never said that I wouldn't use manipulation! So that is an invalid argument!" She pointed out irritably. Ok so he was unbelievably handsome! And just seeing him was doing things to her poor post young adult frame, but he was still being annoying!

At least Sunny came over to them and helped Sides up from the floor, thus ending their argument. He looked at her and raised an optic ridge. "Not bad. If he hadn't actually had a second blade you would have got him there. The same way that he used everything at his disposal, you have to do the same and use everything at your disposal."

Her spark jumped again in a mixture of embarrassment and happiness. Sunny complimented her! And he looked really fragging...uhhhh! She was about to blush like an idiot again! Instead she handed the practice sword back to him and nodded as her antennas flashed a bright pink making her want to curse at herself. "Thanks."

Things got somewhat awkward again after Sunny returned her practice sword to the weapons rack. The two of them just stared at her, or each other, then they would turn back to her, then back to each other. Almost like they didn't know what to say or something. Her door wings twitched against her back in nervousness. Their optics caught the movement and locked on her completely.

She shifted, jerking her thumb back over her shoulder towards the door as she backed up in that direction. "Well I'm going to meet Uncle Prowl for lessons so..." She trailed off awkwardly when neither of them moved or showed that they had even heard her. Weird.

Well if they weren't going to answer she was just going to leave. She made to do just that when a servo clamped down on her shoulder, not hard but enough to stop her. When she turned her helm to the side she saw Sunny staring at her from only inches away. She squeaked in surprise and stiffened. He was way too close to her right now!

And he was pressed against her wings too! She pulled them down and tucked them in so that the super sensitive nodes at the edges were not touching him. "Umm Sunny?"

"Red." He responded quietly without ever moving his optics from her in the least.

"I have to go and meet Uncle Prowl now." She murmured quietly even though she did not move to escape his hold. For some reason it was like her body had just frozen up under his touch...and she had no idea why it was happening. Pit she had no idea why a lot of things were happening to her lately! Opi had only said that she was entering her maturing phase and that she would act strange! She hadn't told him about the warm feeling in her spark chamber yet because she was sure it was bad to be feeling it around her best friends. Even if...even if it felt right.

"We know." Sunny started quietly. He shifted and tugged her a little bit closer to him. "Do you want to come and watch a movie with us in our room later?"

They wanted to watch a movie with her? "What movie?"

Sides slid forward with the ever present grin on his face. "Napoleon Dynamite!"

She cooed softly. Napoleon Dynamite? "What kind of movie is it?"

"A comedy! It's fragging awesome!"

"Sides watch your language in front of Red! Or do you want Ratchet to kill you?!"

The two started bickering back and forth over Sunny's last comment leaving her to think about the proposition. She had not spent much time with them lately, not like she used to anyways. Her traitorous frame was always making her act in weird ways around them so she had taken to avoiding them. It made her spark heavy to be apart from them so often but...she just didn't understand what their bond was. What they were to each other.

But did that mean that she had to push them out of her life due to her embarrassment over her own frame's reactions to them? No. No it did not give her the right to do that to make her own life easier. Sides and Sunny had always been there for her when she needed or wanted them. She would not push them away even if it was hard for her to be around them. "Sure. I get done with Prowl around six."

Both of them instantly stopped bickering with one another to look at her. "Really?" Sides murmured almost disbelievingly.

"Really." She shifted backwards and backed up from the room while grinning. "Six! I'll meet you at your quarters then!" With that she turned and practically sprinted from the room in her haste to get away before her systems overheated. What was wrong with her?!

She ran through the base blindly until she reached Prowl's office where she entered using the key code that he had given her.

Uncle Prowl was sitting at his desk with Uncle Jazz when she practically sprinted into the office. Both mechs looked up at her in surprise when she turned and hastily locked the doors. "Baby girl? Whatsa matta?"

A heavy ex vent escaped her overheated frame sending small clouds of heated steam shooting out from her. She sighed and skipped over to the desk that Uncle Prowl had moved into his office for her. "Nothing." Plopping down into the chair she powered her datapad on quickly.

"Are ya sure? Yo' seem prett' bo'hered by some'in."

Her door wings twitched once...would Uncle Prowl and Jazz know what was wrong with her? It was probably safer to ask them than it was to ask opi...because they wouldn't just kill her friends to prevent whatever it was from happening. She tapped her digits against her datapad on the history of Praxus for a moment before she spun her chair around so that she was facing them.

"Uncle Jazz what does it mean when my spark chamber gets really warm? It happens sometimes...when umm, when I'm around Sides and Sunny. I get all...embarrassed and shy when it happens." Her vocaliser gave a strained sound due to her reluctance and embarrassment to be talking about this.

It was quiet in the room for several long moments making her want to freeze up and hide. When she was almost certain that she was going to have to do just that to escape from the embarrassment a servo was placed on her shoulder. Looking up she met her Uncle Jazz's optics, only they weren't mad or even wary like she had been expecting. They were remarkably...understanding.

"I's normal baby girl. Yo'r a femme growin' into yo'r adult fram'. Soon yo'll be matin' age. Don't be su'prised if yo'r frame starts actin weird."

"Especially around the twins." Uncle Prowl added quietly...with a scowl. His large door wings twitched on his back in an irritated jerking motion.

She trilled in confusion...was there something there with the twins that she was supposed to know about? "Why did you say that? What do you mean?"

Uncle Prowl turned to her. "Just that they are mechs of mating age as well so you will react strongly to them."

Uncle Jazz turned to Uncle Prowl and raised an optic ridge but did not comment. The emotions between them were overcharged, irritation, understanding, reluctance, secrecy. What were they keeping from her? Before the question could be asked Uncle Jazz turned back to her and smiled. "Don' worry bou' it baby girl. Ever'hing is gonna be jus' fine! Yo'll figure i' all ou' soon! Jus hang in dere un'il then."

That only served to frustrate her more...that they knew something and did not want to tell her. A simmering anger started boiling beneath the surface of her frame...

* * *

><p>She was let out of her lessons early that day. Not that she really cared...she was too frustrated to really care at all about much of anything. In fact she was so mad that she was contemplating cancelling on the twins so that she could curl up on her berth and ignore the world.<p>

Part of her did not want to do that though because she had promised. Still another part of her was just so conflicted that she just did not know what to do! Somebot must know what was wrong with her! So why were they all keeping it a secret from her?!

She hissed, turning a corner abruptly she ran into Skids and Mudflap of all mechs. A pulse of aggravation shot through her when Skids pushed Mudflap, making the small red mech slam into her. Her back hit the wall snapping her door wings out of proportion and sending pain shooting through ever receptor in her frame. "OW! YOU FRAGGNG AFTHOLES!" She shrieked when they went rolling passed her.

With an angry growl she launched herself at Skids' back and started punching him in the back of the helm, while she wrapped her legs around Mudflap's neck and started choking him. "YOU IDIOTS! LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO MY DOOR WINGS! I'LL FRAGGING KILL YOU!"

"Ey! Get'cha perty aft offa me!"

"Naw let er stay! I gotsa nice view o' her port fro' ere!"

"Den switch meh spots den fool!"

"Hell naw!"

She brought her knee joints into the sides of Mudflap's neck and started crushing his throat cables making him scream like a little femme. While she was doing that she took Skids' helm and started bashing it into his twin's helm. "IDIOTS! CHOKE TO DEATH!"

"ARGHHH!" Skids' shrieked at the top of his vocaliser, probably alerting the entire base to what was going on. At least that was what she was thinking when she felt several familiar spark signatures approaching their location. That did not make her stop her attack even for an astrosecond! All of the frustration she had felt was coming out through her attack on the idiot twins! And pit did it make her feel better!

Somebot grabbed her just when energon started to spill from Skids and Mudflap from where she had been beating their helms together. She struggled to get back at them as a familiar set of red arms enveloped her small form. Her thrashing only increased as a dangerous decibel piercing shriek escaped from her vocaliser.

Uncle Prowl and Jazz came sprinting around the corner with her opi hot on their pedes. When they saw that she was the one involved in the fight, instead of it just being the twins that were fighting they seemed completely shocked.

She was barely even taking it in though, with Sides whispering in her audio that she needed to calm down, and Sunny rubbing soothing circles onto her loosely hanging wings. If they let her down she was going to go at them again! Idiots had torn her wings from their sockets! She narrowed her optics and hissed menacingly when Skids and Mudflap were yanked up by Uncle Prowl and Jazz. The hiss did not die down even when her opi came over to examine her wings.

"What happened? Your wings are torn from their sockets!" Her opi practically hissed. "Sit her down Sideswipe so that I can reattach them."

Sides lowered her down onto the floor and she lunged before any of them could stop her. Her body slammed into Mudflap this time and sent them sprawling, both of their servos flashing out and striking each other. Hard. They wound up in a heap with him on top of her for a brief moment. With a hiss she powered up her wires and slapped him hard across the face plates with them, breaking the soft malleable metal there wide open.

And she didn't stop there either! With another dangerous sounding hiss she allowed the pulse from her spark to flow into her hair and shock him!

He screeched like a dying animal and jumped off of her just in time for Uncle Jazz and Sides to get between the two of them again.

She hissed again, wires slapping against her frame with loud resounding smacks. Her optics were practically bleeding red at this point and her anger was consuming her. The sharp pain from her door wings was not helping her situation at all either!

Sides was in front of her with his servos held up in a placating gesture. "Relax Lily! Let's all just calm down ok?" He inched closer to her cautiously, so as not to frighten her or incite her already frayed temper.

And frayed it was. With a dangerous hiss she slapped her wires into the floor right in front of him, warning him without words to back off. His presence was not helping her when she was so torn and angry over her body's reaction to him in the first place!

He backed off slightly looking hurt. "Ok Lily. I won't come any closer to you ok? Just calm down."

"THEY. TORE. MY. WINGS. OUT. FROM. THEIR. SOCKETS! I'M. GOING. TO. KILL. THEM!" She bit out in an enraged tone. Her HUD was flashing like crazy, from her angered state and her lock on all the gathered mechs. Each of them was being perceived as some kind of threat to her mission. What mission it was she wasn't even sure of. All she did know was that she wanted to have a go at Skids and Mudflap like a bot would not believe!

And if she couldn't get to Mudflap...her helm swiveled around towards Skids who was being restrained by Sunny so that Prowl could approach her. She hissed, calculating the likelihood that she would be able to get around Prowl and her opi to get to Skids...with her small frame it shouldn't be that hard.

She tensed when Uncle Prowl took another step closer to her and shot to the side passed his servos, shooting like a bullet down the corridor at a now screeching Skids.

"Dat glitch 's gonna kill meh!" He screeched.

She was almost there! Almost there! She dodged opi and dropped down to skid between his legs on the floor. Using her heels she got her pedes back under her and lunged for him, only for Sunny to throw him to the side at the last second so that she tackled him instead.

They skidded across the floor as his arms locked around her like a vice caging her in. She hissed, thrashing wildly, wires whipping him viciously even though she could feel the pain she was inflicting herself! It sounded like a swarm of vicious bees were living in her vocaliser for how menacing the sound of her anger was.

Sunny only tightened his arms locking her completely in place.

She squealed when the movement caused immense pain to shoot up from her injured door wings. "Ow!" The grip loosened somewhat, still remaining tight enough that she could not escape.

"What is the meaning of this?" Uncle Prowl snapped sounding like he might glitch. "All of you are going to be facing at least an entire day in the brig for fighting!"

"Wat?! Dat glitch attack us firs'!" Mudflap protested.

"NO I DIDN'T! Oh wait I did! But that was because you idiots shoved me into the wall with your little fight! You tore my door wings out of their sockets! THAT FRAGGING HURTS!" She bit out angrily despite the warning look her opi gave her for her language, his servos tightening minutely from where he was no repairing her door wings. She squirmed in response.

Uncle Prowl gave her his, 'I am disappointed in you' look. "Brig now! All of you!"

"You can't throw Lily into the brig!" Sides protested looking at her with a worried expression.

Uncle Prowl turned to him and raised an optic ridge. "I can. She is a part of this faction regardless of the fact that she is my charge. All bots will be punished accordingly for their actions. Maybe she will learn not to fight with her comrades this way."

Not likely...she thought to herself. The brig didn't scare her! Bring it on!

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

He could not believe that Lily had been thrown into the brig for fighting! It was one things for Skids and Mudflap, and even him and Sunny, or even Annie and Jezze! But Lily? Their sparkmate? The femme that was as tough and tenacious as she was sweet and loving? It just didn't make any sense to him!

She had a temper and everybot on base knew that! But she was not the type to callously hurt others no matter how mad she was! She only ever got angry and attacked when she was being attacked by somebot else, and even then it was always in good fun! But she had been...raging earlier!

Even when she was a hybrid he had rarely ever seen her like that! And definitely not since she had been turned into a full Cybertronian! It confused him immensely!

"Wanna sneak down into the brig and talk to her?"

Starting in surprise, he turned to look at Sunny who was laying on his side facing him. "Do you have to ask?" He joked, well as much as he could given the situation. Sitting up he pushed his frame off of the berth and started towards the door with Sunny trailing along behind him. He was pretty sure that this was the first time that they were ever going to the brig willingly!

"It is." Sunny snorted as they crept into the dark hallway and started in the direction of the stairs leading down into the brig. As they walked it was mostly silent. **'It was still pretty amusing to see Skids screeching like a little femme when she charged him wasn't it?'** Sunny snorted in amusement over the bond.

**'It was. Who knew that Lily could be so vicious?'** He asked rhetorically. They knew her well enough to know that she was almost as wild and unpredictable as they were! Sparkling, youngling, hybrid, Cybertronian, that part of her would never change.

Together they crept down the stairs into the brig where Hot Rod was laying slumped over his station in recharge. He snorted at the 'guard' as they crept down to the end of the line of cells to the cell at the end where Sunny had carted Lily to earlier.

He peeked into the cell catching sight of Lily sitting on her berth wide awake. "Lily?"

Her helm slowly turned in his direction, she had probably sensed them coming long before they had arrived. "Yes?"

They sat down just outside the energy bars to her cell. "What was that earlier? That...well sweetspark it wasn't really like you. I know that you can have a nasty temper, but I also know that you don't ever hurt others just to hurt them." Except for cons maybe...but that was yet to be seen if she had retained that personality trait.

A soft sad trill drifted over his audio receptors then. "They slagged me off! I'm not apologizing for it either!" She muttered angrily. It was like she had reverted back to the way that she had been as a hybrid when they had first met her. Her door wings twitched once making her wince. "Door wings hurt like a mother fragging son of a glitch right now!"

"Ratchet didn't give you any pain suppressors?" Sunny asked in surprise, both at her choice words and the fact that she was in any pain at all.

"No. Uncle Prowl's really mad so he said that I could think of it as punishment for starting a fight. He said that he expects better from me and that he's disappointed in me for how I acted. Probably because I kept fighting after you guys came...and I even tried to hit you."

When she turned to look at him he could see the regret shining deep in her optics. "It's ok sweetspark. No harm done." Something in his spark clenched upon seeing her looking so desolate and introverted. Where was the happy youngling from a week ago who was causing trouble with her first alt mode? Where was their sparkmate?

"You know that you can talk to us right?"

She looked up at Sunny and nodded once. "Yes..." Her helm dropped down and drifted off to the side so that she was staring at the wall instead of at them. "I just...was angry about something and then those idiots had to run into me like they did. I lost my temper."

Scooting closer to the bars he slipped a servo carefully between the energy flow and reached for her. "Come here Lily."

Her form tensed briefly before she relented and hopped off of the berth to flop down in front of the bars to her cell. She took his servo in both of her's not even covering the entirety of his large one with both of her small ones. That was how small she still was compared to them.

He wrapped his servo around both of her's. "Whatever is bothering you...you can talk to us about it. We'll always be here for you no matter what Lily." His digits slid between hers cupping their palms together as she dropped one servo to her lap. He pulled the servo that he still had possession of between the bar and placed it on his chassis.

Her optics met his almost fearfully for some reason before she whipped her servo back into her cell. She scooted back slightly so that they could not reach her.

His spark stuttered in pain... Why was she pulling away so much? Did she not feel the pull that their sparks had on one another? She had to have felt it...

**'Maybe she just doesn't understand it?'** Sunny guessed.

A feeling of dread suddenly made his spark clench. Oh no...it was the worst case scenario that he had been thinking of when the change had happened! If Sunny was right and that was it then it would complicate things for them. They could not force her to respond to things when she was not ready, and if she did not understand then she wasn't ready. It was as simple as that. That didn't mean that he liked it.

"Lily..." He started helplessly. Not this! Anything but this! Please don't let this behavior carry on after she fully matures! He didn't think that he could stand it!

"Sorry. I've just been feeling awkward lately." She murmured as a way of explaining what her reaction to his touch was about. Her helm was tilted down so that she could not see them allowing her to apparently speak what was on her processor. "Opi says that it's normal for femmes my age to feel like this. And Uncle Jazz and Prowl said the same thing...but I still don't like it."

**'Told you she was feeling awkward because she was maturing!'**

**'Shut up Sunny!'**

Sunny geared up to start arguing with him when a soft whimper drew their attention back to their sparkmate. She was huddled up next to the berth in her cell with her door wings tilted forward to wrap around her small frame. "Red?"

In response she only lifted her wings higher to cover her helm. She wasn't crying or anything like that...she was just hiding herself like a sparkling would by curling herself into a ball with her door wings shielding her from prying optics.

"Lily? What's wrong now?" If only he could just touch her...but the fragging energy bars prevented that from happening! They kept her from him when she obviously needed him! "Sweetspark please talk to us! Just say something so that we can understand what's bothering you!"

"You're bothering me!" She squeaked out.

He froze. They were bothering her? But how could they be bothering her? They were always there for her whenever she needed them! Why were they the ones bothering her? "Why? Did we do something to upset you sweetspark? Did something happen?"

"No. You...I just, and you are, I don't know."

"She's not making any sense." Sunny muttered quietly despite his own worry and pain over her obvious suffering.

All he could do was shrug because she wasn't making any sense to him either. Then again he was not exactly well versed with how to deal with femmes that were going through these issues pertaining to maturing. Before all he cared about was that they were mature enough to face, not how they got that way. But now he had to worry about what she was going through because they were already bonded. "Care to explain Lily? Sunny and I don't understand what you're talking about."

Her helm shot up, a glare resting in those heated almost gold colored optics. "I DON'T-YOU JUST! LOOK AT YOU! YOU JUST-AND I, YOU-" All the while when she was stuttering like crazy she just kept wildly gesturing to them. "LOOK AT YOU!"

Both he and Sunny inspected their own frames, paint, polish, shape...before turning to each other and studying one another. He looked ok to himself...and Sunny looked just fine too. Turning back to her with a raised optic ridge he gave her a 'wtf' look. "What does that even mean?"

She gaped, jaw dropping down with an almost audible click as she smacked her forehelm. Heavy angry vents started escaping her frame while she apparently stewed in her cell. At least he thought she was, with the bond dulled down on her part he could not be sure. But with her outward demeanor he was willing to bet on it. "You...ARGH! Just go away somewhere already!"

When she turned and flopped down on the cold stone floor of her cell he just turned to Sunny. Both of them shared a long look, communicating their confusion over their sparkbond quietly. This was...very confusing.

Maybe Ratchet would understand? Yes that was a good idea...ask Ratchet.

He grimaced because it wasn't really a good idea. But at this point there wasn't much of a choice in the matter seeing as how their sparkmate was pushing them further and further away every day. "Ok Lily we'll go for now. But we are going to talk about this later." He warned her as he stood and waited for Sunny to stand as well.

They turned together and paused briefly. "Recharge well sweetspark." He murmured softly.

"Night Red."

No response came from her so they left the brig and started in the direction of Ratchet's quarters. It may be late but they needed to know why she was being so skittish as soon as possible.

It was a short walk to the CMO's living quarters, and an even shorter wait after he pounded on the door for Ratchet to open it. "Hey Hatchet! Could we talk for a few kliks about something?" He offered the scowling CMO a devious grin.

"At two in the morning?" Ratchet groused. "What could be so important that you two slaggers woke me up from recharge this early?"

"Well it's about Lily."

It only took a split astrosecond for Ratchet to step aside and usher them inside once her designation was mentioned. "Sit down." He ushered them onto the two seat couch sitting just off of the main couch where he took his own seat. With a sigh he rubbed his face plates tiredly. "What is this about? Her being thrown into the brig?"

"No...yes. Kind of?" Cursing at himself for being indecisive, he forced himself to calm down and speak normally. "Lily's been acting really weird lately Hatchet. She keeps pushing us away every time we come near her. Why? Is there something wrong with out sparkbond? Could her transformation have caused something to happen to it?"

"No." Ratchet sighed tiredly and turned to them fully. "She is going through her maturing phase as I am sure that you have already guessed."

"Yeah when she started growing a rounded chassis we kind of noticed that." Sunny deadpanned.

Ratchet scowled at his twin. "Instead of threatening you with death for staring at her chassis, I will just tell you why I think she is acting strange." With a tired sigh the CMO shifted just slightly forward on his couch. "Ok so Lily is growing at an accelerated rate, she has already grown several millenia worth in one year."

"Yeah."

"So it stands to reason that she may be going through her spark calling phase, or the beginning stages of it. At least that is my theory as to her strange behavior as of late. I have yet to speak to her to confirm it for sure, but I am willing to bet that her spark is starting to call for it's other half. Your spark!" He gave them a pointed look.

"So she's all embarrassed and skittish because her spark wants us?" Sunny asked in a disbelieving tone. "Why would that bother her?"

Ratchet slapped his forehelm in exasperation. "Because she has known you since she was a sparkling! She does not have any memory of her previous life whatsoever! She does not know that you three are actually mates! She probably thinks that you have a creator bond, or maybe even a familial bond!"

"But our bond is stronger than her bond with you or with Prowl and Jazz." He pointed out tiredly. Yes tiredly. This was the last thing that he wanted to happen with this whole situation. If she saw them as older brothers it would just make this whole situation awkward.

"Yes I know that. But she doesn't understand why that is! All she knows is that both her frame and spark are reacting in strange ways to your presence! For a young femme entering her period of change it must be very disconcerting to be drawn to mechs that practically helped raise you." Ratchet pointed out.

So she was...embarrassed because she like, had a crush on them or something? "So she likes us already, and she just feels awkward about it? Does that sum everything up?"

"Maybe. I do not know for sure if this is the case. I need to do some scans on her to see what state her frame is in before I can say conclusively."

It got quiet after that for several long kliks..a silence that Sunny broke by asking something that only made the situation worse. "So when the time comes...do we have to like court her again? Would that be the right thing to do?"

He whipped his helm around and shook it rapidly. "No. We already courted her once!"

Sunny glared at him. "Yeah and she doesn't even remember our courtship of her! It would be the right thing to do!"

"I agree with Sunstreaker." Ratchet calmly added his input, as calmly as he could when he looked like he wanted to kill them for even talking about the subject of claiming Lily formally as their mate again. "However she needs to show her intent to you on her own so do not rush her. Prowl will soon begin teaching her Praxian courting rituals, so I am sure that she will soon show her intent to you. As soon as she does you have my permission to pursue her again."

He dropped his helm as disappointment and dejection overwhelmed him. Now they had to court her all over again...after she showed that she was interested on her own. This was going to be even harder than waiting for her the first time around! Especially since they were already mated to her! "So...?"

"When she gives you her shiny objects you can accept them and court her."

"What if she doesn't give them to us?"

Both Sunny and Ratchet looked surprised at the question. "She will Sideswipe. You three are already a mated pair, thus her spark will only be pulled towards your's in the manner of mates." Ratchet sighed looking for all the world like he was going to regret whatever was said next. "However you can show that you reciprocate her interest even before you are courting her. In fact I do not think that she will reveal her interest unless you show some on your parts. She seems...very shy."

Like she had when she was a hybrid...just remembering her as she used to be made his spark hurt. "Ok. So should we start doing this soon or should we wait until her frame is finished growing?"

"What am I? The love doctor?" Ratchet groused under his breath. "Just...do it when she shows interest." He suddenly morphed his expression into a glare and directed it at them. "No interfacing until her frame is finished growing! She will be too small for you two for a while still!"

Even thinking about taking her in her small frame made him feel like slag. No. He may be attracted to her, but he was not desperate enough to hurt her by being unable to control his desire for her. "Got it. No interfacing until she is big enough to handle it."

"How big is she going to be when she's finished growing?"

Her perked up as well at Sunny's question. "Yeah how big is she going to be Hatchet?"

"Don't call me that." Ratchet snapped irritably. "And as for her size I estimate her to come up to you mid chassis at most. She is Praxian and they are known for being shorter than most bots."

"So I can start calling her shorty!" He grinned.

"You could have called her shorty every day up until this point already." Sunny pointed out gruffly.

"Shut up Sunny." He jumped up from his spot and turned to his twin. "Let's go recharge! That way we can get up earlier and pester Lily when she gets out of the brig."

Sunny gave him 'the look' and stood up as well. "Right...that'll go over well."

No probably not. But as long as he got to see her it would be okay. "See ya Ratchet! Make sure that you scan Lily tomorrow...er today!" He called out as he dragged Sunny out the door. They hurried down the corridor towards their room without waiting for a response.

He practically ran into the room and dove onto the berth willing his recharge protocols to kick on as soon as he was comfortable.

"Idiotic slagger." Sunny muttered as he hefted himself onto the berth as well with his back facing him. "Night Sides."

His optics started dimming as his recharge protocols started lulling him offline. "Night Sunny." He murmured as he offlined his optics.

* * *

><p>(Lily's POV)<p>

She hadn't recharged well last night...and it showed when Uncle Prowl sent Uncle Ironhide to spring her from the brig and escort her to the med bay where her opi was waiting for her. Her pedes were dragging across the floor as she marched along behind his large black frame. He had hardly spoken to her other then to congratulate her on kicking the twin's afts.

That was ok though...she was tired and cranky anyways. So she walked along quietly behind him the entire way to the med bay. She hadn't even refueled yet...fruity pebbles sounded good right about now. Now that her converter worked better that is...

Uncle Hide paused in front of the med bay where she sensed opi's spark signature. He turned to her and patted her helm softly once. "Don't look like you're going to face Unicron himself babyspark. Old Ratchet isn't even that mad about what happened. Primus knows that the twins needed to have their afts beat." He chuckled at her and removed his servo from her helm. "Go on in. I'll see you for weapons training later." With that he turned and walked off down the corridor before turning the corner.

For a moment she just stood there with her door wings perked up to track his signature. He was going to the training rooms... Her door wings drooped down against her back as she deactivated her panels, not enough energon to sustain them for long right now. She turned and keyed in the code to the med bay and walked inside.

Opi glanced up from his desk when she came in. "Get on that berth there." He instructed her.

Without saying a word she approached the berth closest to him and hopped onto it waiting patiently for him to do whatever it was he wanted to. Probably wanted to scan her since she grew so fast. He always did that.

And astroseconds later she was proven right when he started running medical scans over her chassis and gestation chamber. "I'm not mad about yesterday sweetling." He murmured mid scan.

Her spark jumped once in surprise. "You're not? But I got into a fight!"

He snorted, continuing his scan with fluid practiced movements. "The twins get into fights all of the time! And I mean both sets! Ironhide gets into fights, Hot Rod gets into fights, I beat on other bots on base with my wrench! Confrontations happen on a military base."

"Yeah but...I don't normally act like that opi." She looked down in shame. It wasn't that she felt bad about beating up Skids and Mudflap...she just felt bad that she let her anger get the better of her. If it happened once would it happen again? If it did would somebot get hurt worse?

"It's normal sweetling." Opi murmured as he finished up his scan. He looked like he normally did when somebot tried to argue with him when he knew he was right, and he had proved it.

"Opi?" She chirped once in confusion and sat up. "Is something wrong with me?"

"No." He sat on the berth with her so that they were close enough to touch. "Sweetling you are going through your spark calling phase."

"Spark calling?"

"Yes spark calling. It means that your body is coming into the stage where you can mate, so your spark is calling for a sparkmate."

A furious blush broke out across her cheek plates heating them up almost painfully. "What?!" She squeaked in surprise and ducked her helm down in embarrassment. Did-did that mean that she wanted to mate with Sunny and Sides?! That was sooo weird even if they were really handsome! They were her best friends!

Opi chuckled at her and patted her helm softly. "All will be well sweetling. It is completely normal to feel the way that you do about all of this. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are good friends of your's so I can understand why it would be awkward for you."

He...he knew?! "How...did you know that I-that I liked them like that?"

"I'm your opiluck...and even if I wasn't your actions gave you away." He pulled her into the side of his chassis and nuzzled her helm. "Do not fight your spark sweetling. It knows what you need better than your processor does. Take your time and go to them at your own pace, but do not fear when that time comes."

Do not fear when that time comes? Her opi was saying that it was all okay? SHE LIKED HER BEST FRIENDS! SHE WANTED TO SPARKBOND TO HER BEST FRIENDS! THAT WAS SO WEIRD!

And yet...her spark felt so very warm, yet empty just thinking about it. Like a part of her was still missing.

What was it?

* * *

><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	39. Chapter 39

Poor Lily is going through the whole adolescent angst phase. No poor Sides and Sunny! They have to deal with her mood swings! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>She peered down at Annie as the small femme chattered on about some prank that she had pulled on Uncle Hide the other day. Jezz sat beside her twin, looking like she was not truly interested in what Annie was talking about. In truth she was barely even paying attention to the chatter as she busied herself more with gently stroking Aednat's helm.<p>

Aednat had been given to her by Jacky a few days ago, now that she was old enough to care for her is what he said. The thing that was odd was that seeing Aednat had stirred some kind of emotion in her that she still could not identify. Other than that she felt immensely happy and attached to her new friend.

They went everywhere together, something that seemed to irritate her opi, and her best friends. Not that she was spending much time with the latter two after her little breakdown in the brig the other day. Since then she had studiously tried to avoid them at any cost, and she had been mostly successful thanks to her sensory panels. It helped to be able to sense them long before they even found her.

She looked off to the side quietly, tuning Annie out some more when she started talking about the prank in more detail. Apparently she had stuffed glue of some sort into Uncle Hide's cannons which made them back fire on him.

It wasn't that interesting to her. Not nearly as interesting as what her optics landed on when she looked away.

Blue was standing at the other side of the hangar staring in no small amount of want at Annie, who was completely oblivious to his obvious desire for her.

Of course she already kind of knew about it thanks to her ability to sense the emotions of other bots and humans. So she already knew that he wanted Annie, she just didn't really know what to do about the whole situation. She could demand that he just court her friend, but she didn't know the courting practices for their kind. Pit it was embarrassing to even think about it when she was having the issues that she was!

Aednat butted her helm into her leg making her tear her gaze away from Blue. "What Aednat? What's wrong?" She asked her new companion as she gently stroked her helm. Using her digits she scratched the sensitive nodes under Aednat's chin making her engine purr.

In response Aednat nudged her again.

"What? What is it?" She asked, only to be cut off when her chronometer went off for her lesson with Uncle Prowl. Oh that was it. With a sigh she got to her pedes and picked Aednat up by her scruffbar before turning to Annie who was now looking at her curiously. "I have lessons with Uncle Prowl today guys. See you afterwards okay?"

Annie pouted but nodded none the less. "OK Lilywing! Come and find us in the brig afterwards because I'm going to get thrown in there for pranking Limelight!"

She pursed her mouth components and nodded. "Okey dokey Annie!" Turning on her heels she started in the direction of Uncle Prowl's office. For some reason she was dreading the lessons today before she even got there. Something just told her that they were going to be embarrassing and mortifying.

Well she already felt embarrassed and mortified as it was thanks to her frame changing. She was still short, only roughly coming up to Sunny's abdomen still. But she was filling out in the chassis, hips, and legs. It was kind of weird to still be around her opi and guardians now that she was growing up and maturing. Though it was not nearly as awkward as being around Sides and Sunny who...apparently she wanted to mate with.

She shuddered, clutching Aednat closer to her chassis as she stopped in front of Prowl's office and keyed in the code. She waited for the door to open and walked inside quietly in case he was working. Surprisingly the normal sight of Uncle Prowl leaned over a datapad engrossed in it was not present this day.

Instead the sight of him sitting at his desk with a single datapad and several shiny objects greeted her. She froze for a moment unsure of what to do...before a sharp gesture from her guardian had her moving to take the seat on the other side of his desk.

As soon as she sat down Prowl pushed the datapad over towards her. "Today you are going to start learning Praxian courting and mating customs. This datapad has everything that you need to know when you decide that you are interested in finding a mate."

A furious blush broke out across her cheek plates as she squeaked once in mortification. "Wh-What?! Mating?" She squeaked out and ducked her helm down into Aednat's back plates. Oh Primus this was so embarrassing! Especially since she was going through her spark calling and she wanted to mate! She just wasn't ready to even think about that all yet!

"Yes mating." Uncle Prowl responded calmly. "You are almost of mating age Lilydancer so it is time to begin teaching you things like this."

"Nooooo." She moaned pitifully.

"Yes." There was an exasperated sigh from him. "Please look up at me littlespark."

As soon as she did the sight of him holding up a shiny object met her optics. That drew her attention in despite her embarrassment! She always liked shiny things! "What is that for?" She murmured and took it from him when he offered it to her. It was smooth and silver...a decorative bullet maybe? Whatever it was, she was tempted to shove it into her subspace and run off with it.

"That is a shiny." Uncle Prowl informed her. "A praxian that has an interest in another bot would make them objects like these. They would give them a set of five shinies to choose from to show their intent to court and mate. The shinier the objects the more the mech or femme likes their chosen."

As soon as those words were out of his mouth components she wanted to drop the object like it was acidic. She resisted though and calmly sat it down on the table. "So if Blue liked a femme he would give her these?"

"Yes. If Bluestreak, Smokescreen, or you liked another bots you would give them objects like these."

Why was she included into that mess? "Why am I included in that statement?" She squeaked again in embarrassment and ducked her helm again. The sight of Aednat looking up at her curiously didn't even make her feel better.

Another sigh. "Because you are Praxian." He deadpanned quietly. "Soon you will feel the pull to bind your spark to another. When that happens you will give the mech, or mechs, these objects to show your interest." The way his voice hitched minutely on the word mechs made her want to blush.

Did everybot know that she had a thing for the twins?! The only good thing about this whole mess was that she was learning how to help Blue with Annie! She could help her friend get the femme that he wanted now that she knew how! Still she could do without the embarrassment and mortification of learning how to do that...

"If the mech accepts your objects, even one of them, it means that your interest is reciprocated. At that point you would be courting formally."

Why was he still talking about it?! All she wanted to do was go and hide somewhere until she oxidized to death! No she wanted a giant gaping hole in the ground to open up and swallow her whole! And yet she knew that she was not going to be lucky enough to have that happen to her!

So she resigned herself to the fact that this was happening and there was no escape. Running wouldn't help because eventually he would find her and start just where he left off when she had made her escape...best to just get it over with!

"Praxians are among the most possessive and territorial bots when it comes to their intended, or their mates. That is true even for femmes. We become fiercely protective over those that we desire to bond to, in those cases if another bot were to do something untoward in regards to your intended mate, your mating cog would kick on igniting your protective protocols."

Ok so she was going to turn into a raging glitch pretty soon. Got it.

"However I do not anticipate any issues with this in regards to you littlespark." There was a stern almost threatening undertone to the way that Uncle Prowl said that, that made her think he was warning her not to let her mating cog overcome her.

A scowl threatened to pull at her mouth plates.

"Be prepared for an increase in aggressive behavior when you choose to court your mate, or mates." Once again he uttered the last word with a strange undertone. He shook his helm slightly to clear it of something that seemed to be bothering him.

She could have swore that she saw a brief flash of Sides and Sunny's faces through their guardian bond... She wisely chose not to comment on that or his exasperation and dread. "So how long does a courtship last?"

"As long as the bots involved want. Whatever makes them all feel comfortable."

"So they could accept the shinies and mate that day if they wanted to?" She murmured, cheek plates heating up again for the thousandth time that day. Unbidden flashes of the two mechs she was trying so desperately to avoid flashed through her processor making her want to beat her own helm in. She blocked the bonds from all sides and clutched Aednat even tighter.

"If they wished to do so." Uncle Prowl nodded at her. "However mating should not be rushed into. It is for life littlespark. When you tie yourself to these...when you tie yourself to your mate you cannot ever undo it. You cannot ever take another mate if they were to offline. It is permanent. Such a permanent life altering choice should not be rushed."

So it was forever? If...if she mated with them it would be forever? That was IF they wanted to mate with...wait! Why was she eve thinking like this? They...her opi did say that it was ok! But it was still so weird to think about bonding to them like that! "So if you make a bad choice you're stuck with it."

"Exactly. It cannot be undone littlespark. So you should make sure that the mechs you bond to love you completely, and you love them just as much." His door wings twitched once in what she knew was aggravation. He must have noticed her optics lock on the movement because he twitched them again. "The door wings play a big part in our mating instincts as well."

Oh Primus not something else to embarrass her please!

A small smirk graced her guardian's face at what must have been her embarrassed expression. He twitched his door wings again. "As I am sure that you know our door wings have supersensitive nodes lining the edge. These nodes are used in mating, be it to show the interest to mate through wind brushing, or in te berth. They are a pleasure spot and your chosen mates would do well to study up on how to handle them."

Her processor nearly fritzed when he said that. Was...was he saying that her wings would get her engines off? Oh Primus it was worse than she thought! Please if there was anybot out there please save her!

"We brush our door wings against our intended mate, or mates to show our wish to mate. This practice will continue even after you have bonded I am sure. It is how we show our physical desire for interface."

She squeaked and tucked her door wings in almost defensively. Why did she have to be a door winger? Why did Uncle Prowl suddenly choose to be a sadist today? THIS WAS SO SCARY!

"When you want to...actually mate you will show your intended by brushing your door wings over their frame. If you were to mate another Praxian you would brush door wings, but seeing as how that is not very likely you will simply brush your wings over your intended's frame. They should understand..."

"Please don't...like teach me the mechanics of interfacing Uncle Prowl. Because this conversation is mortifying enough as it is." She practically begged.

Her guardian's cheek plates lit up in an almost imperceptible blush. He coughed awkwardly and looked down. "No. That is something that your opi should teach you soon. Just so that when the times comes you are not confused on what to do."

"Ok..." Avoid opi whenever he wanted to 'talk'! She added that little reminder onto her HUD just in case it slipped her mind later. No way did she want her creator to sit her down and explain the mechanics of mating to her! Pit! This conversation was disturbing enough as it was!

Uncle Prowl pointed to the datapad that he had given her. "Anything that you need to know will be found in that datapad."

She took it and subspaced it like it was poisonous, stirring Aednat who was laying in recharge against her stomach plates. "Umm is there anything else that you need to talk about?" Please say no! Please say no! Please say no!

"No. That is all for today littlespark. However I do believe that your opiluck needed to speak to you about something important."

NOOOOOOOO! Anything but that!

But from the grimace on Uncle Prowl's face plates she could tell that it was about that! "O-o-ok. See ya later Uncle Prowl." She stammered out as she stood up with Aednat and practically sprinted from the room.

In her frenzy to escape from the room she did not even bother to look out the door when she ran out of it. Thus she ended up running into a large broad chassis...a large broad red chassis. She squeaked and fell back against the door to Prowl's office as it slid shut. Optics wide and locked on Sides and Sunny. Oh why now?!

Sides raised an optic ridge at her. "What's wrong with you Lily? You seem pretty flustered." He inched towards her and leaned down into her face.

She clutched Aednat tighter and gulped heavily. "Uhhhh Uncle Prowl...lessons...embarrassing..." She bit out in broken sentences. Oh Primus this day was so embarrassing! WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING TO HER?!

Her comment earned an odd look from Sunny as he too inched forward into her personal space. "What's so embarrassing about learning history or battle tactics?" He asked quietly.

Their curiosity was really testing the limits of her sanity right now! The only good thing about this was that they were helping her to stall the incoming conversation about interfacing that her opi was trying to spring on her. And even then it wasn't that good because she kind of sort of wanted to interface with these two in a roundabout way.

"Helloooo! Earth to Lily! Come in Lily!"

A servo waving in front of her face drew her attention back to Sides' amused looking face. "Huh? What?"

He sighed looking highly amused about the current situation. "Sunny asked you what was so embarrassing about battle tactics and history?"

"It wasn't about battle tactics and history! He was teaching me mating customs!" She blurted before she could stop herself. And she just kept going before she could even feel like a slagging idiot about what she just said. "AND NOW OPI WANTS TO TEACH ME THE MECHANICS OF INTERFACING! HIDE ME!"

Both of them gaped at her...openly...even Sunny. It was not helping her situation at all.

"Well Red you do kind of need to know about it." Sunny got over his surprise and gently patted her helm comfortingly.

She shook her helm rapidly. "No...no I don't! I don't need to know any of this ever!"

Sides snickered at her...actually snickered! "You do Lily. How are you supposed to mate if you don't even know how?"

In her panic she blurted out something even more stupid than anything she had said prior. "FIND A MECH THAT KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING! OR BETTER YET DON'T MATE EVER! I AM SWEARING AN OATH OF CELIBESY!"

There was an even more awkward silence following her outburst. Well maybe it was more awkward on her part...her best friends certainly seemed to be torn between being amused and irritated.

She jerked in surprise when both of them grabbed her servos and started dragging her towards the med bay. As soon as she saw where she was being taken she screeched like a dying animal and thrashed valiantly to get free. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'M TOO YOUNG TO KNOW THESE THINGS! HAVE MERCY ON ME!" She shrieked as they passed by other bots like Arcee and Hot Rod, who were staring at her with wide optics. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT THE INTERFACING TALK! SUNNY LET ME THE FRAG GO! I DON'T WANNA KNOW THESE THINGS! TRAITORS! SLAGGING TRAITORS! I SAID PUT ME DOWN RIGHT FRAGGING NOW! I DON'T WANNA KNOW HOW TO INTERFACE! MY PORT IS NEVER BEING USED! I SWEAR TO BE CELIBATE!"

They just carried her to the med bay despite her constant struggles to get free and sat her down in front of the doors.

"NOOOOOO NOO FRAGGING LESSONS!"

There was a snort from Sunny before he shoved her forward gently. "Just get it over with femme. Sides and I will be waiting for you when you get done."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO!"

"RED JUST GET INTO THAT ROOM AND LEARN ABOUT INTERFACING!"

"NEVER! NEVER! I DON'T NEED TO KNOW THAT TO BE CELIBATE!"

"Lily he's right...you do need to know about these things. Besides it's not that embarrassing to learn about. You're just making it worse than it is."

"SIDES IT IS EMBARRASSING! I'M A FEMME! WE FEAR THE DREADED INTERFACE DISCUSSION LIKE SUNNY FEARS RUST!"

Sides grumbled something and joined Sunny in pushing her into the med bay. "Just get it over with Lily. We'll be waiting for you when you are done."

She practically stumbled into the room after Sides snatched Aednat and pushed her. Immediately she whirled back around and attempted to get out but the door slammed and locked in her face. She started banging on it as hard as she could. "NOOOOOOO LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! I DON'T WANNA HAVE THE TALK!"

Her opi's bond was overcome with amusement when he spoke up. "Lily stop beating on the door please."

Her servos fell to her sides in defeat as she turned and faced her opiluck dejectedly. At least he looked to be dreading this conversation as much as she was with how bad he was grimacing.

With a sigh he gestured her to a berth and patted it to get her to sit on it.

She did so slowly, like each step was taking her closer to her own death...it felt like she was doing the death march. She hopped up onto the berth and opi sat down in his stool and rolled over in front of her.

"Ok Lily...I am going to teach you about interfacing today."

A small whimper escaped her vocaliser. Please...please don't scar her forever!

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

Both he and Sunny sat patiently waiting outside the med bay for Lily to be finished with her discussion with Ratchet. Aednat sat purring in his lap in her recharge so he busied himself with petting her while he waited.

Poor Lily...the talk was always hard from what he had heard. Not that he had really heard about it before he started partaking in interfacing himself... That came with not remembering your creators or not having them he guessed. Anyways he learned through experience, but femmes needed to have things explained since interfacing for the first time hurt them. That way they did not freak out and hurt themselves more by thrashing or struggling.

The only thing that he wanted to know was...did Lily even have a seal? They had interfaced with her in her more organic body. But this body she was in now was completely new, all organic tissue had been eaten away by the Allspark's energy. Did that mean that a seal had grown in her port to accentuate the new pristine frame?

That thought did not bother him whatsoever...it would mean that in this frame they would be her true firsts. They could be the ones to taint her frame with their essence, and only them!

"Sides...calm down." Sunny grumbled as his own lust spiked.

"Sorry Sunny." He apologized. It was getting harder and harder to control the desire as the days passed by and she grew more and more. He opened his mouth to say something to his twin when a sharp scream rang out from inside the med bay.

The doors suddenly opened as Lily tried to rush out, Ratchet was right behind her and he grabbed her and started dragging her forcefully back in. "NOOOOOOOOOOO! THAT IS THE MOST DISGUSTING THING I HAVE EVER HEARD! UNCLE JAZZ SAVE MEEEEEEEEE!"

Ratchet grunted and dragged her back as much as he could when her wire hooks slammed into the floor to hold herself where she was. "Lily let go of the floor!"

"NEVER! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU EVEN SAID THAT! NO RODS ARE EVER GOING NEAR MY PORT EVER! I SWEAR TO BE CELIBATE! CELIBESYYYYYYY!" She screeched and clawed at the floor.

He grimaced...poor Lily looked beyond grossed out.

"I can continue the conversation out here so that everybot can hear it! BUT YOU WILL HEAR WHAT I HAVE TO SAY!" Ratchet grunted and tugged on her legs hard.

"Wha da pit i' goin on 'ere?" Jazz waltzed over casually with a small amused grin.

When Lily's optics landed on him she cried out in relief. "Uncle Jazz get opi off of me! He's trying to teach me about fragging!"

Jazz laughed and plopped down beside him. "No can do baby girl. Da Jazz man kno' dat yo' nee ta kno' bout interfacin. Jus' ge' in dere an' do i' already!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She screeched even louder and clawed harder against the floor to get away. "I DON'T NEED TO KNOW THAT THE ROD GOES INTO THE PORT! I DON'T NEED TO KNOW THAT STUFF! I DON'T NEED TO KNOWWWWWWWWW!"

"Yes the rod goes into the interface port and the port lubricates to make the penetration easier!" Ratchet grunted out making her scream even louder. "The rod is thrust into the interface port until-"

"AHHHHHHLALALALALALALALALALA! I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU! I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU! LALALALALALALALALALALALA!"

"Lilydancer you are being obtuse!" Ratchet growled down at her. "The rod is thrust into the interface port repeatedly to build up the overload from the spark by sending signals from the inner nodes in the port! It feels good!"

"LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA! NO PORT! HAPPY PLACE! HAPPY PLACE! HAPPY PLACE! WE ARE NOT HAVING THIS CONVERSATION!" Lily chanted, looking like she might actually purge on the floor. Her antennas were flashing a horrid green color from her nausea and disgust.

"It feels good! It causes all the pleasure nodes in the frame to ignite!" Ratchet grunted and held her thrashing lower half as still as he could since he was not going to be able to get her back into the med bay. "The overload starts from the spark and works it's way down to your port!" Another grunt. "Where it ignites the ports overload sequence making your port clench around the intruding interface rod!" Another grunt. "When a femme that can get sparked by interface overloads it helps her get sparked!" Another louder grunt. "It pulls the mech's transfluid further into the frame, up into the gestation chamber, and further into the spark chamber! It possesses their coding which then intermingles with your spark causing a section of it to break off! You can get sparked this way..."

All that came out of Lily's mouth components was a loud disgusted shriek.

"Sparkmerging can cause overloads as well!"

"NOOOOOOO! NO MORE! I UNDERSTAND! I UNDERSTAND! JUST LET ME GO CRAWL INTO A HOLE SOMEWHERE AND RUST TO DEATH!" She slumped against the floor and started banging her helm against the concrete, almost like that would chase away the words that Ratchet was imparting to her. Poor thing looked like she really wanted to go and crawl into a hole and die.

He kind of felt bad for her. Kind of. Especially when she looked up at all of them and glared at them in betrayal.

Ratchet went on to explain sparkmerging to her, without any outbursts on her part this time. He explained how it felt good, like interfacing, the benefits of it, and how her frame would want it when she matured.

And through all of this Lily just laid there slumped in defeat...moaning and crying about how gross it was. How she was never going to interface or sparkmerge...and how they were all traitors.

"And that is all that you need to know on sparkmerging and interfacing." Ratchet finished after another two earth hours. He dropped Lily's legs from his grip. "Lilydancer? Did you hear all that I said? Do you need me to explain it all to you again?" The CMO asked with a raised optic ridge when she just laid there banging her helm into the floor.

Her frame tensed a split astrosecond before she jumped off the floor and took off running down the hall. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Her scream carried down the hall long after she had turned and run off down another corridor. "NO INTERFACING EVER!"

Sunny grimaced in the direction that she had disappeared in. "Well that went over well." He mused quietly.

He stroked Aednat's helm and nodded. "No not really."

"I was being sarcastic Sides."

"I know." Turning back to Ratchet's amused look he frowned slightly. "Thanks Hatchet! Now she's going to be afraid to interface with her own mates when she's older."

The only warning he had that he had said something that he should not have was a scathing glare from Ratchet. That was quickly followed up by a swift painful strike from the CMO's wrench. He yelped and ducked his helm to cover it with his servos as pain lit up his processor.

"THE FRAG WAS THAT FOR?!"

"For being a slagger." Ratchet snorted before disappearing into the med bay.

"Ow." He whimpered and rubbed his newest dent gingerly.

"Should we go and find Red?"

"Yeah. Yeah we should go and find her." He stood up with Sunny and waved at Jazz. "See ya Jazz."

Jazz waved back briefly before they turned and started in the direction that Lily had disappeared into. In her panic she had left the bond mostly open so they could sense her location quite clearly, and even if they couldn't sense her they could hear her.

"NOOOOOOO INTERFACING!"

Coming from the supply room... Together they made their way to it and found her huddled back behind a stack of tarps obscured from view. He sighed and pulled the tarps and various other supplies off of her. "Lily you are being kind of...difficult about this whole situation. It's not that bad."

"Interfacing...scared...yuck!" She stammered out and slid back further under some more tarps.

Sunny looked at him and pointed at her. **'What the slag? Is it normal for femmes to freak out like this when they learn about interfacing?'**

**'Ummm maybe?'** He murmured in uncertainty as he kneeled down and crawled under the tarps with their sparkmate. "Lily come out please. Nobot is going to talk about interfaci-"

"INTERFACING YUCK!" She squealed before he could finish his sentence.

"That." He sighed and grabbed a hold of her arm to pull her out from her hiding spot. "Come on sweetspark. Come on out from under there."

It took him a moment to pull her small frame out from her hiding spot, as soon as she was unobscured from their view he pulled her into his chassis and handed her Aednat. She was shaking like a leaf from helm to pede as she clutched at her cybercat companion in a death grip. It made him wonder if this was only about learning about interfacing? Or was it her spark responding to forgotten memories? He sincerely hoped that was not the case.

"It's ok sweetspark. It's all over now." He rubbed her back soothingly and buried his face plates into her purple helm. Her red wires drifted out from underneath her helm and cascaded down his arms pooling around her lower thighs. He ran his digits through them.

She whimpered, antennas flashing a bright embarrassed pink mixed with green. "Yuck..." And clutched at Aednat even tighter. In response Aednat only shifted and curled closer to her master. "Nnghhghhhhrrrhhhggg. Never interfacing...ever!"

Sunny sighed and plopped down on her other side tugging her helm up so that he could look at her. "Red it's not that bad. Interfacing-"

"NOOOOOOOOOO INTERFACING!"

Sunny scowled at her and tapped her helm gently. "Is normal! All bots do it! You will end up doing it! It's better that you know how it works before attempting it for the first time. And you may not want to think about doing it at this time, but you will one day. It's better to be prepared baby."

"Noooooo." She whimpered again shifting against him slightly. The tips of her door wings rubbed against his arms making her stiffen. Her antennas flashed a bright pink mixed with a dark red as she whimpered, this time it sounded different though. "Noooooo!"

A spike of pleasure suddenly shot through their sparkbond emanating from her. What the slag was that?! He could tell that Sunny had felt it as well by the way his engine revved softly in pleasure. Neither of them acted on it though. She was still too small for them.

That did not make him any less curious so he tapped her helm to get her to look up at him. "What was that Lily? The bond felt strange."

She blushed, antennas flashing a dark embarrassed pink. "Well...my door wings umm...they have pleasure nodes on the edges." Her helm dipped down again breaking optic contact. "Well Uncle Prowl said that they umm...feel really good when you rub them against things. I didn't mean to though."

Oh. "That's ok sweetspark. No harm done." He assured her gently. Even as a Cybertronian she was still so small compared to them, yet she fit so perfectly as she always had.

So small and fragile both in spark and processor, yet deceptively strong and powerful. There were just some things that she did not know how to handle, things that seemed to be instinctual to her spark. She had retained a lot of who she used to be. Including the shyness that was so endearing to him.

She tucked her door wings in, probably to avoid further incident. Her entire frame slumped against his large one, apparently spent from the trying day that she had. Even her optics started dimming despite her attempts to keep them online.

"Go ahead and recharge sweetspark. We'll take you back to your quarters."

"Nooooo I am not recharging near opi!" She protested.

He hesitated when the thought of letting her recharge in their room passed through his processor. What did they have to lose though? "You wanna recharge with Sunny and I in our room?"

"I think she's already in recharge Sides." Sunny pointed out.

Sure enough when he looked down her optics were completely dimmed and her engine was purring softly. Well he guessed that meant that she was going to be recharging with them tonight. Shifting he managed to get to his pedes without waking her or Aednat and started towards their room.

The walk was silent besides the gentle purring or cooing from the femme recharging in his arms, or the soft purrs from Aednat. Sunny never uttered a word, and he was not so inclined to speak right now either. So they made it back to their berth room without a sound and walked inside.

Making his way over to the berth he sat her down on the middle of it before crawling in next to her and situating himself so that she was pressed against his chassis. Sunny crawled in on her other side and spooned up against her back, careful of both sets of door wings.

He wrapped his arms around her and repositioned Aednat so that she was not in the way. Once he was completely comfortable with where he had her settled he allowed his recharge protocols to activate. "Night Sunny. Night Lily."

"Night Sides. Night Red" Sunny murmured back.

The only response that they received from their femme was a soft coo as she snuggled closer to them in contentment.

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><p>(Lily's POV)<p>

The first thing that she registered when she came out of recharge was how warm she was. The second was that she could clearly feel two sets of arms wrapped around her. The third was that she could clearly hear two loud sparks thrumming right next to her. And lastly she onlined her optics and was met with the sight of gold paint.

Her spark stuttered once she realized that she was laying on top of Sunny with Sides wrapped around her from the side in an awkward heap. His arms were wrapped around her sides, his helm resting on Sunny's chassis near her helm as he recharged.

She just sat there...awkwardly for several long moments before she started squirming in an attempt to free herself. It wasn't that she was angry at them, no it was that her frame was heating up almost painfully from their proximity. She wanted to throw her reservations about interfacing to the wind and just do something to them! Ugh and it was so mortifying that her processor was even entertaining thoughts like that!

By now she knew for sure that she...felt things for them. She knew that there probably would not be other mechs on base that she would be interested in but...it was still incredibly awkward for her to be thinking of them like that when she remembered them being there for her when she walked for the first time. Or when she crawled for the first time. They were practically like big brothers...well not really because you didn't wanna frag your brothers.

She wriggled loose from Sunny's hold and backed up down his frame slowly, quietly so as not to wake them from recharge. The last thing that she wanted was to make this even more awkward than it already was. And if they woke up it would definitely get worse.

So she stayed deathly silent as she crawled down his frame to the end of the berth where Aednat was curled up in recharge. She reached out and grabbed her by her scruff bar as she scrambled down from the berth and edged towards the door. Aednat only whirred tiredly in response.

She keyed in the code and slipped out the door unnoticed, venting heavily when it slid shut silently behind her. Nobot was in the hall as far as she could see, most bots were in their rooms at this hour. That did remind her that she wanted to talk to Blue!

She went to make her way to his room when a servo clamped down on her shoulder. Whipping around she was surprised to see Demetri of all mechs staring down at her. Something about him made her uneasy, but that could be attributed to the fact that she barely knew him. "Hello."

"Hello Lily. Where are you off to so early in the morning?" He asked in his deep cultured voice. His red optics held her's intensely while he spoke.

"Umm..." Her frame tensed causing her to shift to lessen the strain. He did make her feel strange...nervous even. "I'm going to see Blue."

"The sniper?"

"Yeah him."

"Hmm...well I guess I will see you later then."

Surprisingly he just turned and walked away from her leaving her in stunned silence. Had...had all of her nervousness been for nothing? Probably...but she didn't really think too much on it when she turned and skipped to Blue's door and knocked on it.

The sound of pedes hitting the floor sounded out a klik or so before the door opened to reveal a tired looking Blue. His dark blue optics brightened when they landed on her face morphing into a bright smile. "Morning Angelwing! What are you doing here so early in the morning? Not that you aren't welcome to come anytime you want to of course! I just wasn't expecting you to be up so early! Not that it's a bad thing or anything! Oh do you have to work with Ratchet in the med bay today? Am I keeping you?"

She giggled and shook her helm no. "No Blue. I wanted to talk to you about something!"

He looked surprised but gestured for her to come in anyways. "What did you want to talk about?" He asked after the doors slid shut.

"Well I wanted to talk to you about Annie." Her optics drifted around the plain room, berth in the corner, couch area sat up opposite of the with a large flat screen. Opposite of that was a desk for his rifles with various parts littering it's surface.

"What did you want to talk to me...about her for?" Blue murmured quietly in what she depicted as embarrassment.

With a smile she placed Aednat down on the floor and turned to face her friend. "You like her." She stated bluntly.

Blue blushed heavily and stammered incomprehensibly for a few moments. "What?! I-well I mean yeah I like her but! What kind of like do you mean?!" He squeaked out.

"Like like." She skipped over to him and pulled him over to the couch. "And I think that she likes you too!"

"Angel! Don't say that! She can't like me like that! I can't even shut my mouth components for long enough for most bots to like me!" Blue sighed dejectedly and slumped against the couch.

"That's not true! And besides I don't think Annie cares that you talk a lot! Have you ever heard her talk?" She pointed out calmly. He did not say anything in response making her sigh and edge closer to him. "Blue if you like her you should tell her. She'll be happy to hear it."

"No she won't."

"Why don't you just try it! Give her shinies! Romance her! Play savage garden for her!"

Blue looked up at her in confusion. "What's Savage Garden?"

He never heard of Savage Garden?! "It's this group that plays really good love songs! Listen to I knew I loved you and you will understand! No play that for Annie when you ask her to be your sparkmate!" She practically bounced in her seat!

Blue stammered and blushed. "Sparkmate?! But she doesn't even like me!"

"Does so!"

"Does not!"

"DOES SO!"

"DOES NOT!"

"DOES SO!"

"DOES NOT INFINITY!"

"DOES SO INFINITY SQUARED!" She snapped cutting him off. "Yeah you can't beat infinity squared!"

"Angel...I can't ask her! I can't make her shinies! She won't even understand what it means!"

When Blue dropped his face into his servo she gently patted his back. "I can explain it to her so that she does! I can give them to her for you! After you make them of course!"

Blue looked up at her between his digits and pointed to the low table sitting in front of them where several shiny objects were sitting. "I already made them...but I can't work up the courage to give them to her."

She cooed softly and reached over to pick up a very shiny almost gleaming silver pendant without a chain. Wow Blue must really like Annie if he made such shiny objects! She turned it over in her servos and gently touched the small pink gems on both sides. "She'll love them! Let's go give them to her now!"

"NO I CAN'T! Angel please don't-"

"We're going Blue!" She stated sternly before snatching the items up and subspacing them. "She will say yes! I know it! Are you going to let another mech or human come and sweep her off her pedes because you were too scared to tell her that you liked her?"

Blue's wings shot up angrily as he growled. "No! Nobot else is allowed to court her!"

Got him! She grinned to herself internally and hopped up from the couch holding out a servo for him to take. "Then let's go and give these to her!"

For a moment he just stared at her servo before taking it in his and getting to his pedes. "Alright! Let's go and give them to her!"

"RIGHT! FRAG YEAH!" She fist pumped and dragged him to the door.

When it opened both she and Blue were surprised to see Sides and Sunny standing there, Sides poised to knock on the door. "What are you two doing?" Sides asked as he dropped his servo back to his side. Behind him Sunny stood glaring at Blue.

"We're going to give Annie shinies!"

"ANGEL SHUSH! I don't want everybot to know!" Blue nudged her.

"Whoops sorry! I mean we're going to do some target practice!" She chirped instead.

"Righttttt. So that little bit about giving shinies to Annie was all slag right?" Sunny snorted quietly, optics trained heavily on her or more specifically at her and Blue's entwined servos.

"Yup! Well we have to go now!" They made to edge passed the two of them but Sides reached out and grabbed her arm before she could get too far. She turned to look at him in surprise. "What?"

"We'll come too." He responded before stooping down to grab Aednat when she came waltzing out of Blue's room. Oh she had forgotten about her!

"Why do you need to come?"

"Because we're bored." Sides responded casually. Something told her that he was lying though! He was keeping their bond shut tight so she couldn't really figure it out.

She scowled and flared her panels, switching to wide range sensory. If he wanted to keep things from her then she would find out in other ways!

Her panels focused in on his processor catching the stray wavelengths from it as they wafted into the air. She fluttered her door wings as the impulses hit her panels sending an overload of information shooting to her processor.

Her HUD lit up, information passing across her vision and invading her every thought. She sifted through them quickly, his thoughts and emotions clear to her. At least what was on the surface of his processor. When she found out what was bothering him she faltered.

He was...displeased that she had left their room to go and see Blue without telling them? He was feeling irritated that she was with Blue alone in his room? What was that all about? She trilled curiously and tilted her helm to the side. "Sides we're just going to give Annie shinies so that Blue can court her."

For some reason that did not seem to help at all because they both flared their armor slightly to make themselves seem more intimidating. They did not want her to be alone with any mechs. "We're coming and that is final!" Sunny snapped.

"Ok ok. Calm down." She placated them gently. Glancing back at Blue she took stock of his nervous face. "It's ok Blue. They will stay out of the way ok? I mean it you two don't mess this up!" She glared at them and flared her door wings warningly.

With that said she started tugging Blue down the hallway with them trailing along after both of them. She did not understand why they were being so difficult about this! But whatever the case she had a mission and that was to get Blue and Annie together.

So she ignored the twin giants lumbering along after her the entire trip to Annie and Jezz's room. They stopped outside the door to her room and she turned to Blue. "Ok Blue just give her these and explain what they are for!" She handed the shinies over to him and pushed him towards the door.

"I can't tell her what they're for!" Blue panicked.

"Yes you can!" She pushed him again before she grabbed the twins and pulled them back to hide around a corner. "Just do it Blue! Get ir done!"

He just gave her a stricken look and knocked on the door.

She grinned and opened her chest plates slightly revealing her own speaker system. Shifting through the stations she found the song that she wanted and waited patiently for the right moment to play it.

When she peeked back around the corner it was at the same moment that the door opened and a sleepy looking Annie trudged out into the hall. Her hair was mussed and knotted and her eyes were still half closed. "Morning Blue."

Blue looked at her and seemed to panic so she gestured for him to give Annie the objects he was holding. He raised an optic ridge and blushed, somewhat gesturing wildly with his helm to the shinies he was holding.

"Blue just do it!" She mouthed while glaring at him.

She was pretty sure that she heard him whimper when he turned back and held the items out for Annie.

As soon as he did that she started playing the song. "Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you, That is how I know you go on!" Both Sides and Sunny snorted at her before she slapped their helms to silence them.

Blue even looked at her with a 'wtf' look. He turned back to Annie when she picked up the same pendant that she had been looking at earlier. "Wow this is pretty! And where is that song coming from anyways?" She looked around.

"Far across the distance, and spaces between us! You have come to show you go on!" She ducked back around the corner before Annie could see her and turned the volume up.

"Uhh I don't know...the overhead speakers maybe?" Blue commented quietly.

"Oh...well why did you bring these to me Blue? They are really pretty and all but I was wondering if there was a reason for you to give them to me?"

"Near, far, wherever you are I believe that the heart does go on! Once more you open the door! And you're here in my heart! And my heart will go on and on!" She struggled to keep herself from laughing when Sides raised an optic ridge at her in his own 'wtf' gesture. All she could do was shake her helm at him and gesture for him to drop it for now.

"Well I...when Praxians want to court another bot we...we give them shiny objects."

There was a soft gasp from Annie. "C-court?! You want to court me?"

"Well yeah. I made these shinies for you because I...well I..."

Here she turned up the volume even louder to play the last verse. "You're here, there's nothing I fear! And I know that my heart will go on! We'll stay forever this way! You are safe in my heart! And my heart will go on and on!" "Annie I umm...I LOVE YOU!" Blue suddenly shouted. "LET ME COURT YOU!"

"Tact is not Blue's friend..." She whispered quietly as she peeked around the corner to see Annie's reaction. Discreetly of course!

The brown haired femme was gaping in shock as she clutched the silver pendant against her chest over her spark. She had a gleam in her eyes, a light sheen of moisture. "Really?! You really want to court me?" She sniffled.

"Yes...if you want me to."

"This is so disgusting." Sunny muttered.

"I think it's kinda cool. The whole romantic scene with a nervous vulnerable mech. It's different." Sides responded back.

"Slagger."

"Shh! I'm trying to hear!" She hushed them both. Their feelings of irritation and boredom wafted over her almost immediately. Not that she cared because Annie took the pendant and tucked it into her shirt making Blue's door wings twitch up expectantly.

Annie sighed and smiled at him. "You kept me waiting long enough Blue!" She giggled.

"Does that mean...you want to be my mate?" Blue asked shakily.

"Of course I do!"

Smiling to herself she slipped back around the corner when Blue went to embrace her... She grinned at the twins and gave them two thumbs up. "Operation get Blue and Annie together is a SUCCESS! Damn I'm good!"

Both of them shared a look...and turned back to her with optic ridges raised. "Really?" They chorused together.

Really...she was damn good. Now if only she could figure out what the frag their problem was...and she would be set!

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><p>R&amp;R! Don't worry I plan on making Lily interfere with Blue and Annie when he formally asks her to bond with him...in even more embarrassing ways. She's such a little menace! Read! Review! Vote for sparkling names on the vote in my profile page!<p> 


	40. Chapter 40

So we're at almost 200 reviews now! That is really awesome guys! I want to thank everyone that reviews on each chapter before I start! It really means a lot that you read and leave a comment every time I update! Thanks! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>"Ok Lily staunch those wires and reconnect the ends with binding adhesive." Ratchet instructed her as he supervised her while she worked on Hot Rod. The fragging idiot had gotten into a fight with Sunny and had gotten his aft kicked. So her opi must have figured that it was a good time for her to put the skills he had been teaching her to use.<p>

Luckily there had been an abundance of injuries to choose from. From an arm that was hanging nearly completely torn off of Hot Rod's frame, to some shredded metal plating that used to be his chassis, to a pede that had been torn off somehow.

What she was really wanting to know was; how the pit did Sunny...no why did he tear Hot Rod's pede off? Knowing him it was probably a heat of the moment thing. And she could just ask him when she was done with Hot Rod since he was in the med bay with small injuries of his own.

For now she focused on finishing up attaching Hot Rod's arm so that he would still have full use of it. She followed her opiluck's advise and reconnected the severed wires, and what she could not reconnect she replaced instead. She grabbed a binding solvent and used it to meld the ends together. "So what was this fight about you two?" She asked quietly while she worked.

Opi snorted. "Probably about something slagging stupid like scratched paint! I'd bet earth credits on it!"

Sad thing was that she would too...Sunny and his paint. DO NOT MESS WITH SUNNY'S PAINT! Even she was not stupid enough...ok she was stupid enough seeing as how she had painted him pink the other day for fun. Well that and Sides had wanted to prank him so she had ended up painting him pink. He had nearly glitched.

"Ok Hot Rod you're good to go. Do not strain these repairs ok?" She drew back from the large mech and stepped away from his berth so that he could get up. It kind of bothered her that she was so flustered whenever Sides and Sunny were around, but with Hot Rod or any other mech there was just nothing there. Hot Rod was a good looking mech and she had absolutely no reaction to him.

Sunny on the other servo...she looked over at him to see him glaring at Hot Rod again. The familiar fluttering feeling crept through her frame centering most strongly in her tanks. It made her feel like she wanted to purge and fall into stasis.

His optics drifted over to her and locked on her instead. **{What? Is something bothering you?}** He asked over their bond.

Both he and Sides had been using it a lot more lately instead of speaking out loud. She felt her door wings twitch as she approached his berth and started working on his repairs. **{No.}** Her response did not even sound believable to her. She was bothered...and the more her frame grew...the worse it got.

The repairs she had to perform on Sunny were basic patch jobs. He had several severed wires that she needed to staunch and reconnect. He was much better off than Hot Rod the slagger. She worked quickly and efficiently to complete her work without speaking. All she wanted to do was go out for a drive to clear her helm. Maybe after she was finished with him she would go out.

His gaze was burning into her the entire time that she reconnected the severed wires in his arm and neck. It bothered her, made her hot and jittery. She could literally feel her frame overheating just from having him look at her! And Primus was this getting harder and harder every day!

There was no relief for her! This growing need only intensified every single day, every single time that she saw them. She was trying so hard to fight it too because...well she didn't really know why. All she did know was that she was scared and nervous about feeling what she was.

The only one that even remotely knew about this was her opi, and that was because she normally did not cut him out of their bond. He continuously told her that things would be ok, that whatever was happening was meant to happen. Over and over again he told her that.

Maybe it was the fact that he pretty much said that she did not have a choice that bothered her? Yes that was probably it. She wanted to have a choice in who she ended up with! To hear that she did not, that the choice had been made for her irritated her! And it was not because she disliked Sunny or Sides! No she loved them! They were always there for her... But she just wanted to say that she made her choice herself because she wanted them. Not that she chose them because she had no choice.

Her thoughts were bothering her again...they tended to do that. She hurriedly finished up Sunny's repairs and stepped back away from him.

He was still watching her. Even when he sat up he was still watching her...when he got down from the berth his optics stayed locked on her. Almost like they could not stray to anywhere else.

She shifted and looked down, feeling so small compared to him. In recent weeks she had grown a few feet so she now stood at his lower stomach plating. But he was still so much bigger than her. It almost intimidated her how big he really was when he stood next to her. It made her feel like he could just reach out and squish her with one servo if he wanted to.

Her cooling fans itched to kick on and expel the heat from her frame. Instead she turned to her opi and pointed at the door. "I'm gonna go out for a drive around the base. I'll be back for the second half of my shift soon."

"Do not wander from the base." Opi warned her sternly. "Be back in one hour."

"Kay." She edged around Sunny and dashed out the door...running face first into Sides. It was almost comical how she rebounded off of his large frame like a bouncy ball.

He caught her before she could fall and grinned. "Going somewhere Lily?"

Her cheek plates heated up in an energon blush. "Y-yeah. Umm I'm gonna go out for a drive." She stammered like an idiot. Inside she was cursing herself for how stupid she actually did sound! At this rate everybot on base would end up knowing that she was enamored with these two! What with the way that she blushed and stammered around them!

Sides' grin widened as he stepped back and offered her an arm. "May I accompany you?"

She jumped when Sunny came up on her other side and repeated Sides' arm motion by offering it to her. "I'm coming too idiot!"

She just looked between the two of them curiously. What was their deal? "Umm sure?" As soon as the words were out of her vocaliser she wanted to hit herself in the helm! The whole reason that she wanted to go out was so that she could have some time to herself! WHY?! WHY DID SHE HAVE TO BE SO SCATTERPROCESSED!?

When Sides grinned at her like she had just offered him the universe and all its riches, she just could not take it back. She sighed internally and linked her arms through both of their's so that they could lead her forward.

"So how was work in the med bay today?" Sides asked her while they walked towards the hangar.

In response to his question she turned and gave Sunny a scathing look which he shrugged at. "Well Sunny decided to have a go at Hot Rod so I got stuck repairing them all day because opi wanted to see how far I've come in my training. So it was eventful to say the least because this slagger!" She hissed the word and glared at Sunny. "Nearly tore Hot Rod's arm off! And he actually did tear his pede off!"

Sides was silent so she turned back to him and he looked like he wanted to laugh. "Sides! It is so not funny!" She back tracked because it was kind of funny to see rash, arrogant, and completely helmstrong Hot Rod torn to shreds from a bought of stupidity. Well it would have been kind of funny if she hadn't had to repair the damage!

Sides busted out laughing, and by that she meant deep gut wrenching laughter.

She smacked his side reproachfully and scolded him. "Sides! You're as bad as he is!"

"Sorry sweetspark! It's just...we've never got along with Hot Rod, the three of us always fight."

They stepped into the hangar and she drew herself back from their arms. She just shook her helm at them and shifted down to her alt mode...it was starting to get pretty cramped. Soon she would have to get a new one. She revved her engine prompting her friends to shift down to their respective alts.

**{Admit that you think it's funny.}** Sides prompted her over the bond.

Not wanting to fuel their behavior she just did not respond as she shot out from the hangar suddenly. She could hear them gun their engines and tear off after her not even an astrosecond later. Her spark thrummed once in excitement as she gunned it harder, tearing up sand and dirt.

She didn't know where she was going really...just that she was going somewhere. Weird when you thought about it, but sometimes it was nice to just go and not care where you ended up. Of course she was mindful not to wander too far from base since she had to be back in an hour to help her opi in the med bay since it was First Aid's off day.

Both her mech companions were right on her aft the whole time that she drove. Having them so close stirred up the familiar fluttering feeling in her tanks. It was almost a constant in her life now, to be subjected to this feeling. Nothing that she had done was effective in making the sensations stop. Not avoidance. Not outright aggression. Nothing.

As she drove she wondered if she really did not have a choice in who she ended up with. Something in her told her that she did, and another part said that she did not. But there was also something deep down in her spark that she could not understand, a part of her that was revelling in being with these two like this. She just wished that she was not so torn that she could not make a choice. Because that was what it felt like. Like she could not make a choice.

The three of them came upon a lone tree sitting on a cliff. She had never been here before, at least she was pretty sure that she hadn't been. But as she shifted to her bi pedal mode and plopped down under it she had to admit that it felt familiar somehow. That feeling only grew when Sides and Sunny shifted and sat down beside her.

Something tugged at her spark like...rememberance of something that had happened. But her processor conjured up nothing for her to pin the feeling to. It was blank. For some reason that made her spark just...hurt. She didn't clutch at her chassis like she wanted to do in order to ease the pain. If she did that then her friends would know that she was pained, and she was keeping the bond dulled so that they did not know.

It was a dull yet sharp throbbing sensation eating away at her. There was no reason for it from what she could tell. She just could not understand why it was happening!

A servo was suddenly waving back and forth in front of her optics making her look up at Sides. He was staring at her worriedly. "Are you okay sweetspark?"

"Yes. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Maybe because Sides has been talking to you for about ten minutes now and you have not responded at all?" Sunny pointed out gruffly. He shifted closer to her until he was crowding her in against both Sides and the tree. "Are you sure that you're okay Red?"

"Yes." She repeated too quickly for it to be believable. And she knew that he did not believe it both from the way that he scowled at her, and from the way her antennas perked up when a large swell of frustration wafted out from him.

"Liar." Sunny muttered.

Her armor puffed out to make her look bigger as she tried to think up any reason for her behavior that was believable. The only thing that she could think of was that she had to help her opi perform physicals starting today. Yes that would work! Who wanted to stick probes up mech's aftpipes all day? "I'm just not looking forward to physicals. Opi is making me help him and First Aid...I'm uh...not looking forward to sticking probes up mechs afts." By the end of her little rant she was actually blushing just thinking about it. Maybe she should train more with Uncle Jazz those days and avoid the med bay?

"Why do you have to do that anyways?" Sides grumbled as his arms came down to cage her in.

She shifted nervously against him keeping herself ramrod straight. "Well because there might be times when I will uhhh need to know how to do that. Like if opi and First Aid are gone and physicals need to be done. That way they can fall back on me if they need to even if being a medic is my secondary function."

"It could be your primary function." Sunny pointed out with a strange intensity to his voice.

For some reason she felt like he had said that to her before. Not that it mattered to her, she would be what she wanted to be no matter what anybot else thought. "I am going to be a saboteur Sunny even if you two and opi don't like it. It is what I am best formatted for." She shifted around to try and get comfortable against Sides' chassis, not that she really could seeing as how just being near him made her jittery.

"You are formatted so that you could be anything that you want to be. Your panels can be very useful for medical repairs and assessment and you know it." Sides pointed out with that same intensity.

What? So they were going to gang up on her? Who the pit did they think they were? She glared at Sunny and hissed threateningly, lifting her door wings as much as she could in a sharp V shape meant to show that she meant business. "I AM GOING TO BE A SPYBOT, AND A MEDIC. END OF STORY." She bit out dangerously.

Sunny looked like he wanted to make some kind of retort, only to think better of it. "Fine. But Sides and I are going to make your melee weapons! Ironhide should get started on your guns soon! If you are going out you are going to be decked out!"

"Uncle Jazz and Prowl are already working on some failsafe weapons for me. Uncle Hide is working on a variety of silenced weapons for me as well. So don't worry about it. Spybots aren't supposed to be captured so I probably won't need to worry about using them. Well I probably will but...I don't plan on getting caught."

"Nobot ever plans to." Sides pointed out dryly.

"I know." Sighing, she leaned back into Sides' chassis and relaxed as much as she could against him. His frame was warm and it eased her tenseness somewhat...though she was still a bundle of nerves due to their proximity. "I'm not going to think it's a game when I go out guys. What good is a soldier that does not even take their duty seriously?" That was a lesson that Uncle Prowl and Hide had instilled in her. To always take her job seriously and to complete it to the best of her abilities. She would too so that all their efforts were not in vain.

She perked up when a weapon idea that she had been contemplating popped up in her processor again. Maybe Sunny could help her with it since it was a melee weapon? It was just an idea to increase her chances against larger, more heavily armored opponents. Instead of one blade she would have several attached to her arms on a track that would allow them to move at high speed increasing her piercing power.

It only remained to be seen...if they could actually pull it off. "So Sunny how do you feel about testing out a new weapon idea?"

Sunny immediately looked interested. "What kind?"

She grinned and sent him the schematics that she had worked out. They were rough at best but if Sunny was as good as he thought he was, he could make it work.

His optics dimmed telling her that he had received her file. "What the slag?" He muttered a split astrosecond before his mouth components pulled up into a smirk. His optics returned to their normal dark blue and locked on her. "Femme I like how you think. That weapon plan is fragging genius."

"I'm glad you think so. Now the real question is," Here she leaned forward slightly into his space with a mischievous look on her face. "are you good enough to make it for me?"

Sunny grinned, actually grinned like a predator and leaned in towards her. "You are on femme."

Perfect. Now all she had to do was survive the physicals without spontaneously combusting from embarrassment. Oh joy...

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><p>Oh pit no! Her optics shot over to her opi, then to who he had brought for her to examine, then back to him again in disbelief. He had not, and she repeated had not, brought Sides and Sunny for her to violate with an aft probe! NOOOOOO! WHY HER?! <em><strong>:OPI ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR PROCESSOR?! I AM NOT DOING THEIR EXAMS!:<strong> _She practically shrieked over the sparkbond.

Her opi winced. _**:Sorry sweetling. Optimus needs me for something and First Aid is out on a mission with Arcee and Bee. Just scan them for any loose wiring, or faulty systems. Things like that...and probe them. I actually need you to do Hot Rod first.:**_ He gestured to the mech sitting near the door impatiently. _**:He has a mission tomorrow morning that he needs to be debriefed for so Optimus wants him done ASAP.:**_

_**:WHAT?!:**_

_**:Just do it sweetling. You are an apprentice medic...and medics don't get to choose who they treat. Trust me, if they did Skids and Mudflap would not be here today.:**_ He snorted and gave her one last look before he turned and left the room.

Leaving her with the three mechs who were all staring at her oddly. She smacked herself in the helm and hit herself a few times making Sides snicker. "Ok Hot Rod...get on this berth here." She gestured to the berth closest to her before she went and grabbed the datapad with all of his information. "You two sit down and be quiet." A single digit was pointed at the two banes of her existence to direct them to two chairs on the other side of the room.

Sides dragged a scowling Sunny over to them so that they could sit down. For that matter Sides didn't look that happy anymore either. No he was glaring at Hot Rod just as heatedly as Sunny was.

With a sigh she powered on the datapad and sat it down so that she could start scanning her patient. Her optics lit up with an advanced level medical scan, Hot Rod's status popping up on her HUD.

**/Mech height-23 ft. Mech weight-3,750lbs./**

**/Internal systems status-Optimal. Internal stabilizers-functioning at maximum efficiency. Weapons sytems-functioning at 89% maximum efficiency./**

She furrowed her optic ridges as the scan finished. "Well you are mostly healthy but your weapons systems need to be assessed by Ironhide." Stepping back away from the berth she approached the sink and washed her servos. "Lay on your stomach plates and remove your aft plating please."

There was a loud growl, two actually, when Hot Rod did as she asked.

She ignored it and dried her servos before grabbing the probe. Sifting through a drawer she pulled out a lubricant to make the entry easier and rubbed it over the probe tip. All while grimacing like it was the most disgusting thing ever... "Ok Hot Rod, when I say exhale deep you do it."

Stepping over to the berth she propped the probe up against his aft pipe opening. "On the count of three exhale. One. Two. Exhale deep for me." As soon as his frame vented heavily she easily shoved the probe up his aftpipe. Oh Primus she felt like such a...ughhhhh!

Hot Rod squirmed slightly in discomfort but otherwise did not move. "That will never get any easier to go through." He muttered.

"No probably not." She agreed as she moved around to the bottom of the berth and peered into the opening to assess whether or not he was backed up at all. "Hold still...and vent deep for me ok?"

She shifted to probe so that she could see the farthest parts of his aftpipe. It looked pretty good...nothing obstructing him, nothing that would cause him to get backed up. "Ok it looks good. Vent deep for me."

As soon as he did she quickly removed the probe and sat it down in the sink to be sterilized later. She washed her servos again and dried them before she went over to put Hot Rod's information into his file...while she was doing that she opened a comm link to Uncle Hide.

**'Uncle Hide? Hot Rod needs a weapons assessment before he goes out on his next mission. His weapons systems are only functioning at 89% maximum efficiency.'**

It took a moment before a gruff, **'Gotcha. Send him on over to bay 20 as soon as he's done babyspark.'**

**'Ok. Will do.'** With that she cut the link and turned back to Hot Rod. "Ok Hot Rod everything looks to be working mostly fine. Your weapons systems need to be assessed before you leave. Ironhide is waiting for you in weapons bay 20."

Hot Rod hopped down from his berth and snapped his aft plating into place. "Ok sweetness. I'll head on over."

Loud growls sounded when he called her sweetness. She ignored them and walked him to the door where she waved him off as he walked down the hall. As soon as he was out of sight she turned and moved back into the med bay to get two more probes ready to be used. Ohh she was so not looking forward to this! And from the looks on both Sides and Sunny's face plates they were not looking forward to it either.

"Come on over and sit on this berth Sunny." Best to get the more difficult one done with first...at least that was what she told herself when she gestured him over to the berth next to the one that Hot Rod had been on.

At least Sunny listened and hopped onto the berth she indicated while she was prepping the probes to be used. "Has there been any changed in your frame lately? Any pain or discomfort? Any trouble doing things that you would not normally have?" She asked after she turned and approached his berth with his file clutched in her servos.

"No." He answered gruffly.

"Ok. Well sit still and let me scan you." She sat his datapad down and started up her scans as she had with Hot Rod. Her HUD lit up as her optics drifted down over his frame performing another advanced level scan. His information popped up just the same as Hot Rod's had.

**/Mech height-25 ft. Mech weight-4,500 lbs./**

**/Internal systems status-Optimal. Internal stabilizers-Functioning at Maximum efficiency. Weapons sytems-Functioning at optimal efficiency./**

The only thing that did seem to be off was his spark rate. It seemed higher than it should be, though from what her scans could deduce there was nothing serious wrong with him. She finished her scan and sat down to input his information into the datapad. "Your spark rate is slightly elevated. Is it causing you any discomfort?"

"No. I don't feel anything."

When she looked up at him again he was looking at her intensely. It made her own spark beat faster in response. She pushed the feelings away and put his file down. "Ok Sunny...lay down on your stomach plates and...remove your aft plating." She blushed heavily when he followed her instructions and dropped his plating onto the berth.

Stay calm...stay calm...she repeated like a mantra while she applied the lubricant to the probe she was going to use on him. Why was this so much worse than doing it to Hot Rod? She felt like she was literally marching straight to her own funeral as she turned and approached the end of the berth.

She propped the probe tip at his aftpipe opening and vented heavily. "On the count of three exhale deep. One. Two. Exhale." As soon as his frame relaxed mid exhale she shoved the probe up inside of his pipe making him squirm slightly. "Sorry Sunny." She apologized.

"S'okay Red. Just do what you gotta do." He grunted.

So she hurriedly checked him to see if he was obstructed in anyway and he looked clean. There was no build up along the sides of his gray pipe whatsoever, so she drew back. "Ok exhale for me."

He did so, frame jerking when she pulled the probe out. She tossed it into the sink to be sterilized. "Ok you can sit up now Sunny."

The large gold mech did so, grabbing his aft plating as he hopped down from the berth. His frame was jostled when he landed on the floor...causing the unimaginable to happen. His front interface covering fell off with a loud clang.

Her optics widened when his interface rod was revealed to her viewing...pleasure. It was long...like bigger than her forearm at least in length, and thick. That was when she realized that she was staring at it! With a shriek she whirled back around so that he back was facing him and roared. "YOU! YOU PUT YOUR PLATING BACK ON RIGHT NOW!"

"Sorry. Didn't mean to." There was two loud clicks signalling that he had snapped his armor back into place. "Ok I'm decent now."

When she turned back around there was a fragging smirk on his face! A SMIRK! She gaped at him and wildly gestured, to what she didn't even know. "What the frag was that?! Are you trying to scar me for life?!" She practically screamed at him.

"No. It fell off Red. I said that I was sorry." The smirk on his mouth components only widened. "Well you better get Sides' physical done." With that he moved over to retake his seat while Sides got up and bounded over to the same berth the Sunny had been on previously.

He hopped onto it and grinned at her. "Hopefully that won't happen to me. I don't want to scar you."

She was almost one hundred percent sure that they were fragging with her right now! Little did they know that her opi had been giving her wrench throwing lessons! And if Sides pulled anything she was going to belt him with one. Hard.

Sitting Sunny's datapad on her opi's desk, she switched and grabbed Sides' file before powering it on. "Ok so anything not feeling right in your frame? No pain? Discomfort of any kind?"

"Nope." He said, popping the p.

She put that into her datapad and sat it down on the berth so that she could run her scans. This time she was much more focused and efficient.

**/Mech height-24 ft. Mech weight-4,200 lbs./**

**/Internal systems status-Optimal. Internal stabilizers-Functioning at maximum efficiency. Weapons systems-Functioning at optimal efficiency./**

The only thing that was off with Sides was his spark rate, but she didn't think anything of it because both mechs shared a spark, thus sharing their spark rate. If one was a little high, the other was a little high.

She put that into his file. "Ok Sides drop the aft plating...and lay down." While he was shedding his plating she went and prepared the probe to be used. Approaching his berth she propped the probe up against his aftpipe opening and vented heavily. "On three. One. Two. Exhale."

She shoved the probe up his aftpipe and quickly assessed the state of it. Clean. Nothing coated on the sides of the pipe to obstruct him. Good. And she drew back quickly before tossing the probe into the sink. "Ok Sides you're done. Put your plating back on."

She went back around and grabbed his datapad to input the information while he jumped off the berth. Her attention was drawn up when there was another loud clang, optics landing on Sides' impressive...just as impressive as his twin's, interface rod.

Just like with Sunny she released a loud shriek, only this time she retrieved a wrench that her opi had given her and threw it at his helm.

There was a loud clang followed by a pained yelp. "OWWW! WHAT THE FRAG WAS THAT FOR?! IT FELL OFF!" Sides whined while he rubbed at his helm.

But now she was absolutely positive that Sunny's little stunt had been planned so she whirled on him and threw another wrench that she retrieved from her subspace at him. "YOU FILTHY PERVERTS! I KNEW THAT YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE SUNNY!" She roared as her wrench slammed into the gold frontliner's helm.

He roared something and clutched at his helm as he dove down to avoid another wrench that she aimed at him. "RED STOP IT! WHAT THE FRAG?!"

Sides dove behind a berth when she turned back on him. "SWEETSPARK IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! AND WHAT THE PIT?! DID RATCHET THE HATCHET PASS ON HIS WRENCH THROWING LEGACY TO YOU?!"

"YES HE DID!" She roared as she dove behind his berth and tackled him, simultaneously grabbing a wrench from her subspace so that she could hit him with it.

"OW! STOP IT!" Sides yelped as he turned them and pinned her to the floor mid roll. He grabbed her servo and pinned it down next to her helm. "It really was an accident! Calm down!"

"Accident my aft!" She hissed angrily. Her wires sprang to life poised to strike out at the red frontliner.

And she would have too if he had not leaned down and forced his mouth components against her's. She stilled completely in shock when his warm mouth came into contact with her's. Her optics met his as her spark started hammering in her chassis like a bongo drum.

What was she supposed to do? She didn't even know! But when he started moving his components against her's she responded before she could stop herself. Her tanks felt like there were a thousand butterflies fluttering around in it when he tilted her helm and pressed his mouth components harder against her's.

A sharp jolt of pleasure shot straight through her spark making her whimper. Her wrench fell to the floor with a clang as she threw her arms around his neck and pressed herself closer to him. All without even thinking...like it was just instinctual even when she had been fighting it with everything in her.

The chassis pressed against her's shook with a deep pleased rumble. He was looking at her so intensely that it made her entire frame tingle. Those deep blue optics alight with some strong emotion as he gazed down into her's. He was entrancing her so much that she did not even notice Sunny plop down beside them until Sides was yanked aside so that the gold frontliner could follow his brother's example.

She released a shocked squeal when a second set of mouth components were thrust upon her's. In a much more dominating fashion. Her optics locked with a second set of deep blue as Sunny directed her arms around his neck gently. His own arms fell on either side of her helm as he pressed himself closer to her.

Her spark thrummed happily from the attentions. She moaned softly when he nipped at her bottom lip component and opened herself up to him. His glossa snaked into her oral cavity making her whimper again, in need this time. They seemed to realize her sounds for what they were as well, because Sides knelt over her and started kissing her throat cables.

She squirmed in surprise releasing another louder moan. What the frag was wrong with her? Her spark chamber felt so hot all of a sudden, and the heat was coursing all the way through her frame! All the way into her interface port making it clench.

She hesitantly brushed her glossa back against Sunny's making him rumble in approval. His glossa wrapped around her's and pulled it back into his oral cavity as his servos ran over her small frame making her arch into him. He tasted so good...like something spicy yet sweet at the same time.

Some part of her was screaming that this was wrong, but a swift forceful nip at her throat cables silenced the voice. All the fight in her just vanished leaving her completely slumped against the floor at their mercy. She panted into the kiss she was sharing with Sunny, whimpering when he suddenly became much more forceful with his attentions. His glossa forced itself against her's hard as he stretched his mouth components and enveloped her much smaller ones completely.

A deep pleased rumble coursed through both of their frames emanating from him. Things were just getting too heated for her to think straight. From the pleasant jolts of pleasure radiating from Sides' attention to her neck, to the strong simmering sensations that Sunny was evoking in her. She just couldn't stop herself.

Until a servo drifted over her port plating... Her entire frame stiffened as a flash of incomprehensible pictures passed through her processor making her spark suddenly jump in terror. All of the pleasant sensations that they were instilling in her faded leaving a sharp horrible pain behind.

She offlined her optics as a terrified whimper escaped her vocaliser. **{Stop. Please.}**

Both mechs froze when she opened the bond wide for the first time in probably months. All of her fear and pain washed over them.

**{No more.}** She whimpered.

They immediately drew back and helped her up from the floor while murmuring apologies to her. She was cradled between both of their chassis protectively while her entire frame shook like a leaf. Those memories...they weren't her's were they? And what were they anyways? To her it seemed like a rush of colors, pain, and fear. But she couldn't make out what was causing it! She couldn't make out the pictures!

**{We're so sorry Lily. We didn't mean to scare you.}**

Sides nuzzled her helm making her antennas twitch.

**{It's ok Red. Nobot on base would ever hurt you. Sides and I will never force you into anything.}**

**{Promise?}** For some reason she just had to know.

**{We promise.}** They answered at the same time.

Both of them slipped into the bond fully and channeled her fear out, replacing it with feelings of safety and affection. For once she just let it happen instead of fighting it, she needed to feel that assurance and her opi had closed his bond while he was meeting with Optimus. Even if she had been able to access that bond something told her that she would have gone to Sides and Sunny anyways.

"It's ok baby. We shouldn't have been so rough with you." Sunny kissed her helm between her antennas. "No I shouldn't have been so rough with you. You're not even fully grown yet, I could have hurt you."

She shifted so that she could look up at him. Her optics met his deep sorrowful blue...and even if she hadn't been able to see it she could feel it both through the bond and through her antennas. It made her feel guilty that she had caused so much sadness in them.

"Don't even think that way."

Sides' sharp demand surprised her. Turning to him she frowned. "But I...freaked out over nothing."

Her red friend scowled at her which went against his normally cheerful demeanor. "It wasn't nothing Lily. You haven't been touched, this is all new to you and we pushed you too far. It's actually a good thing that you did stop us sweetspark, because if you hadn't things might have gone farther and you aren't ready physically or mentally for that."

"Physically?" She stammered out.

Sunny rumbled against her back plates and wings. "Yes physically. You aren't big enough to handle interfacing with us. Our rods are too big for you."

As soon as the words were out in the open she squeaked in embarrassment and ducked her helm down. Her spark speeding up again in embarrassment and mortification this time. "Wha-what are...what are you even talking about?! Interfacing?! I swore to be celibate!" She stammered like an idiot.

"Mm hmm...celibate. Right." Sunny murmured in her audio breathily. "That's why you responded so beautifully a few moments ago."

The three of them were so distracted in each other that none of them heard the med bay doors open at that moment.

"The way that you whimpered...made my entire frame ju-" Sunny trailed off with a loud yelp when something smacked into his helm with a clang.

All three of them turned in the direction of the door catching sight of her opi standing there looking absolutely murderous. He had another wrench poised to strike down anybot that moved. "What the slag did you just say Sunstreaker?!" He snarled angrily.

Sunny growled. "Frag you Ratchet!"

Her opi just took a menacing step forward with his wrench. "I ASKED YOU WHAT YOU JUST SAID!" He reached out and yanked her away from Sunny before thrusting her behind him. "AND KEEP YOUR SERVOS OFF OF MY SPARKLING! SHE'S TOO YOUNG FOR THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR!"

She felt coolant drip down from her optic ridge... Hadn't he been the one to say let whatever happens happen? And now he was threatening them for kissing her? Well making out and molesting her but... Unfortunately she forgot to block the bond so all three of them heard that and turned to look at her.

Oh slag. Opi looked ready to murder somebot! And the stupid grins that her best friends were wearing wasn't helping to save them from her opiluck's wrath either! "Let's all just calm down ok? We just uhhh kissed. Well they kissed me."

"And she liked it." Sides piped in like an idiot.

"Idiot!" Sunny smacked him over the back of the helm. "She loved it! Look at me!" He gestured to himself from helm to pede. "Who wouldn't want to kiss this?"

Her jaw dropped. How stupid were they?! She had to lunge at her opi's arm to stop him from slamming his wrench into one of their helms. "OPI CUT IT OUT! NO WRENCHING ANYBOT INTO STASIS!" She wrestled the wrench from his grasp and slapped it away.

"YOU WERE SCARED!" Her opi roared making everybot fall silent. "I FELT YOUR FEAR THROUGH THE BOND! HOW DARE THESE SLAGGERS! HOW DARE THEY PUSH YOU THAT FAR WHEN YOU'RE JUST AN ADOLESCENT FEMME! I'LL KILL THEM BOND BE SLAGGED!"

The cocky grins were wiped from both twins faces, being replaced with deep frowns. "We didn't mean to scare her Hatchet." Sides murmured, looking in her direction guiltily. "I just...well she was just so beautiful that I couldn't help but to kiss her."

She blushed and squeaked in embarrassment. _B-B-Beautiful?_

"Yeah and then I got drawn into the whole mess when I felt Sides' pleasure. I guess I was a little too rough with her because she did get scared." Sunny looked at her apologetically. "But as soon as she pushed me away I let go of her. I would never push her or hurt her."

She ducked her helm down venting heavily. "I'm ok opi. It was a heat of the moment thing. I don't even know what scared me." She stated honestly. All she knew was that his actions had caused some sort of primal fear that she did not understand. She didn't know why, she didn't know what those images were...

What she did know was that...she could not continue to push these two away like she had been. It was just too hard to keep them back. It hurt her spark too much.

"Please don't hurt them?" She pleaded with her mech creator.

His entire frame was completely rigid from his anger. At her soft plea he relaxed slightly and turned to her with serious optics. "Fine. But if they ever push you again before you are ready...it will not be pretty."

Her entire frame was enveloped in opi's arms making her feel safe and protected. The fear from earlier had fallen dormant for now...but something told her that it was not gone for good.

She just wished...that she knew what had scared her so much.

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><p>R&amp;R! Woo hoo forty chapters!<p> 


	41. Chapter 41

Here's chapter 41! We're officially at 200 reviews! You guys are so awesome! Thanks for all the support for this story! Oh and I wanted to put up a vote for a character for a future story! Well I am already working on another Sides/OC/Sunny story, but I want to do another character! I'll put a vote up in the profile page! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>Her door wings twitched on her back giving away her nervousness for anybot to see. She just couldn't seem to help it though after what had happened in the med bay a few weeks ago. Ever since she was a bumbling mass of nervous circuits.<p>

Nothing could detract from that either. Not training. Not her recent growth spurt that had put her at roughly sixteen feet tall, or up to Sides' lower chassis. Soon her frame would be full grown...and every time she thought about that fact she thought back to what Sides and Sunny had said to her that day in the med bay. ABout her being too small for them...well she was fairly sure that she wasn't too small now.

That thought made her blush...awkward when Uncle Hide and Jazz were working on installing her weapons. At least they were more focused on installing her suppressed high impact marksman rifles than on her. That was a good thing too because she was fairly certain that she looked like a blueberry.

Even the feeling of her frame breaking apart to accommodate the new additions did not take her processor off of everything. It would be nice if it did, but she was not going to be a whiner. Besides! She was getting her weapons today and that was something to be celebrating about!

They wanted to keep her arsenal strong yet subtle and easy to hide. The marksman rifles that were being installed were sleek and aerodynamic, but they also packed a punch because the firing chamber was enlarged to increase firepower. However it was hidden in her lower arm so that only the firing barrels were revealed when the weapons were activated. They would pack quite a punch Uncle Hide had assured her of that.

On top of that Uncle Jazz had started installing failsafe weapons that would remain active even when her normal weapons system was offline. That way she always had a way to defend herself when the time came.

The only downside to them was that they did not do a large amount of damage, that meant that when used the user would have to focus on precision or a full out assault to overwhelm their opponent. So far most had been installed, a failsafe set of wrist blades, her digits were reformatted into SMGS, small pulse cannons were installed on her shoulders, and her heels contained a set of sharp two foot spikes that she could use to increase her kicking power.

Right now her guardian was fiddling with her wires for some reason. She just laid there while the two worked having opted to stay online during the procedure. It gave her time to think about her situation with Sides and Sunny and what she should do about it.

Well she kind of knew what she should do...and that was to make them shinies and give them to the two. She had already stopped fighting herself even if she had continued to avoid them somewhat. It was just very embarrassing for her to talk to them after they had kissed her like they had.

That and...the images that it had evoked still scared her. What scared her most was the fact that she did not know why it had happened. She didn't know what those flashes of color and sensations were. Something told her that she did know, but she had just forgotten. She didn't know what to think of that part of her that believed that.

At that moment her thoughts were interrupted when Sunny and Sides walked into the room, the former carrying several sleek silver blades. She trilled softly catching the attention of the mechs working on her.

They too turned to the approaching mechs and raised optic ridges at them. "Why did you bring so many swords? And what the slag is up with their design?" Uncle Hide snorted as he looked them over.

She was looking at them and inspecting them as well. The blades were shaped like Sides' blades, doubled edged and sharp. The only real differences was that they were smaller so that they fit her frame, and they were actually formed in a set of three blades side by side attached to an adjustable strut that allowed them increased movement.

Sunny only pointed at her like that explained everything. "It was Red's idea." He came over to her and plopped down beside her so that he could work on installing her swords. Luckily she had already been prepped by him for the additions so installation would be easy. He tapped her arm. "Turn it for me."

"Ok." She murmured turning her arm so that he could work. She observed him while he brought the weapon to her forearm, the joint of the weapon easily sliding into the slot that he had prepared before.

She winced slightly when her frame broke apart and reconstructed itself around the new addition, the feeling still being very disconcerting for her. Her circuits seeped into her new weapon connecting with the inactive circuits in the weapon added to her frame.

It startled her when the blades suddenly started vibrating rapidly jostling her frame, the sharp sound of what to her sounded like a large bird rapidly flapping their wings invading her audio receptors. She looked at her new addition, blades moving so fast that her optics could barely discern the movements.

For a moment she just observed it and tested the new weight before deeming that it was to her liking. She cooed softly in pleasure and disabled the weapon on her HUD, blades slowing and stilling in response when their power was cut off. They folded back into her arm until they were hidden from sight. The only telltale sign that they were there was that her arm was now just slightly bulkier, not enough that it was really noticable but it was slightly larger than before.

"Who ca'e up wit dat weapon idea?"

Sunny paused slightly in installing her other weapon to raise his helm and nod at her. "Red did. The increased vibrations will increase her piercing power allowing her to break through tougher armor. It will give her a better chance against larger mechs." Then he went back to what he was doing.

"She's every bit as twisted as you are." Uncle Hide muttered.

"Hey! I am not twisted!" She protested with mock hurt. In reality she was really that twisted...just ask Skids and Mudflap. It was her personal mission to make those two suffer for tearing her door wings out that day, and for being slagging idiots. Whenever the opportunity arose she pranked the slag out of them.

"Yo' are pretty twiste' baby girl. In a goo' way tho'!" Uncle Jazz teased her when he came down from the back of her helm.

A new feature popped up on her HUD only astroseconds after he finished whatever he was doing. Curiosity got the better of her and she activated it without waiting for him to explain it to her.

There was a sudden yell from Uncle Hide as her helm suddenly tugged sharply making her squeak in surprise. She looked over at her Uncle figure just in time to see him dodge her wires before they could impale him. Her optics widened in shock and surprise when she realized that the ends of her wires had come together at the ends, the hook like appendages at the end forming a long sharp blade.

"Sorry!" She apologized as she deactivated that function. Wow overkill much Uncle Jazz...it was cool, but it was overkill.

"Really Jazz? Killer hair?" Sides voiced her thoughts perfectly. Only he sounded very amused, probably because she had almost slaughtered Uncle Hide. He even sounded like he was smiling.

Uncle Jazz just shrugged. "'Ey yo' gotta be readay for any'hing! Some con, some'ay is gonna get a real su'prise from dat function. Ah am tellin ya!" His grin was easy to see when he looked at her. Wide. Infectious.

It made her want to smile. She would have if she was not currently on the receiving end of a stern glare from Uncle Hide. Her door wings drooped slightly, a soft sorrowful coo escaping her vocaliser. "Sorry Uncle Hide." She repeated.

"Babyspark...please let us explain the functions before you play with them? That way we avoid the offlining of other bots." He rubbed his face plates tiredly and sat back down to finish installing her weapons.

"Ok." With that she settled back to allow them to finish working on her. Well she settled down physically but her processor was still a flurry of activity as it had been for weeks now. Unfortunately she would not find any peace from the dizzying storm that was raging in her processor due to the presence of the two mechs that had caused them.

It also did not help that they were staring at her again. Again! It had become a common occurence for them to just watch her from a distance, or during the rare times that she allowed them to keep her company. That made her sound like a glitch...but she still found it somewhat disconcerting to have them around her constantly. They had kissed her senseless after all, without prompting as well.

She proceeded to ignore them completely. It was easy enough to do when her frame was breaking down to accommodate new parts and functions. It was not painful, well sometimes it was a little bit painful, mostly it was just uncomfortable. The good part of it was that it made it easier to ignore her audience.

Sunny had long since finished installing her weapons and was now staring at her like Sides was. She felt them pushing at her block slightly as if wondering why she was keeping them out, faint feelings of curiosity and yearning worming their way into her spark.

"Ok babyspark." Uncle Hide suddenly spoke. "Everything is installed. For the next few days I want you to take it easy while the systems settle and integrate completely. Do not attempt to use them yet." He instructed her sternly.

"Can I at least get my new alt? My old one is too small to use now."

Hide stood and pushed Uncle Jazz out of the way so that he could unhook her from her spark monitors. "Yeah you can do that. Just take it easy like I said."

She sat up when the last sensor was removed and hopped down from the berth. Her frame gave a small groan from all the new parts making her feel a fair amount of discomfort. It was nothing that she couldn't ignore though. "Thanks Uncle Hide! And Uncle Jazzy!"

"Yo'r welcome baby girl! Don' foget dat yo' got ta take it easy till ya opi says o'herwise." Uncle Jazz reminded her.

"Ok ok I got it!" With a giggle she turned and skipped from the room. All she had to do was find Lennox and see what alts he had for her to choose from!

Her door wings twitched when a vaguely familiar spark signature approached her. She stopped and turned at the same time that Demetri came around a corner and approached her. The familiar feeling of wariness that she always felt around him hit her again. She ignored it and waved to him as he approached her. "Hi Di."

"Hello Lily. Where are you off to at this time?" Demetri asked her in his deep cultured voice. He offered her an arm. "Perhaps I could escort you?"

For a moment she just stared at it warily. What could the harm be though? Even if he did make her nervous he seemed like an amiable mech. With that thought in mind she looped her arm with his and allowed him to lead her in the direction she had been going in. "I'm going to find Lennox so that I can get a new alt mode!"

"I see. Your old one must be too small yes?" He twined their servos together and squeezed her smaller one gently.

"Yep! I hope that Lennox has some new alts in for me to choose from!" Excitement built up in her as they neared the hangar where she could sense the human in question. Her door wings started twitching as she pulled the large black mech along faster. "Come on Di! I want my new alt mode!"

Demetri played along and sped up into a brisk run.

She laughed and tugged him along faster. Her spark was still conflicted by his presence but her processor was telling her that he must be ok. He had never done anything to harm her so she should not judge.

At least that was what she told herself during their trip to the hangar. As soon as they skidded in and all optics landed on them together, her opi's included, she thought that maybe he had done something that she didn't know about.

That thought was only solidified for her when two loud growls rang out from behind her. She released Demetri's servo and turned to face Sides and Sunny slowly. Her spark sped up in nervousness when she saw the harsh glares they were aiming at Demetri. Had he really done something that bad? No he couldn't have otherwise Uncle Optimus would not let him stay on base.

Sunny suddenly reached out and pulled her away from the black mech. "Stay the frag away from her!" He snarled loudly.

Sides stepped in front of her obscuring her from Demetri's view. His snarl was every bit as menacing as Sunny's was. "We won't warn you again! Come near her and we'll rip you apart!"

"Why are you threatening him?" She pushed at them to try and get them to move but they stubbornly refused to do so. This entire situation was completely above her helm! All she was doing was spending time with another bot on base! What was so bad about that? They were all allies here right? Right?

Sunny turned on her glare lessening somewhat when his optics landed on her. His large sevos came down to clamp on her shoulders firmly. "Red you are not to spend any time alone with Demetri. Do you understand? He is not a good mech."

She trilled softly. "Then why is he here if he's so bad?" Her optics drifted passed Sunny to land on Demetri. Was it because his optics were red? She had seen Estelle spending a lot of time with him though so he must be ok. Right? If she spent time with him, and not just her but the other hybrids then he had to be ok right?

"He just is!" Sunny snapped at her. "Just stay away from him!"

"This is so absurd." Demetri's deep cultured voice spoke up immediately upon the room falling silent again. "I was only walking her to the hangar so that she could get her new alt mode. I was unaware that it was a crime for me to do so."

Both of them turned to glare at him, well Sides had never stopped. "We won't tell you again! Now get lost!" Sides snarled.

Demetri wisely backed off but not before giving her a charming grin. "We will have to catch up later Lily. Until next time, and enjoy picking out your new alt mode." With that he turned and briskly exited the hangar completely ignoring the harsh glares that he was receiving.

Almost immediately Sides joined in with glaring at her. "What was that all about?!"

"Ummm we were walking to the hangar?" She trailed off quietly feeling distinctly confused and bothered by their behavior. If they knew something about him why didn't they just tell her so that she had an actual reason to avoid him? "To get my new alt mode...Demetri offered to walk me. Why does it matter?"

"It matters because he's a slagger! He's not to be trusted!"

Her entire frame jumped from the sheer vehemence that Sunny snarled those words with. She felt her spark give a sorrowful lurch. Somehow she had angered and disappointed them...she knew it. But how? How was she supposed to know that Demetri was not a good mech? It wasn't like she kept her sensory panels on all day every day for obvious reasons. One being that she would overload her intakes if she did that. The second being that she trusted the bots on base too much to mistrust them. "Ok. I get it." She tugged herself back away from them.

"Sweetspark we aren't saying this to you because we're mad at you!" Sides frowned at her when she pushed her emotions at them. He grabbed her and pulled her back so that he could tilt her helm back so that they were optic to optic. "We're saying it because we care about you. He's not a good mech Lily. I know that he may seem like he is, but he's really not. Please just listen to us on this."

It was really the way that he pleaded with her so desperately that made her decide to listen to him. Sides would never steer her wrong, and neither would Sunny. If they thought that Di was not good for her then she would listen to them. "Ok. I won't spend time with him." She relented quietly. "Can I go and pick my alt now?"

Both of them studied her intently for a moment before nodding simultaneously. "Yeah let's go baby."

She walked passed them and knelt down beside Lennox. "Hey Willy! You have any small or medium sized alts that I can look at?"

"Sure do. I was thinking that you would need some soon so I had Epps go and pick some out." He gestured for her to follow him as he led the way over into a store room that they kept the alt mode selections in.

She followed him inside the room where a line of brand new cars sat pristine and waiting. Her optics roved over all of them as she looked them up on the internet to see their performance ratings, makes, models, years... There was an 2014 Audi R8, a 2014 Corvette stingray, a 2014 Porsche Cayman, a Lotus Elise... Those four stood out the most to her.

After a moment's deliberation she decided against the Elise because it was a little small which meant that she would have to change alts again pretty soon. The cayman was nice but she wanted something a little bigger as well so she excluded that as well. So she was left with the Blue Audi R8, and the Red Corvette stingray. "Which one do you think is better?" She asked Sides and Sunny when they fell into step beside her.

Both of them looked the two remaining choices over for a klik. "Corvette." They said together.

"I agree with the twins, the corvette looks very nice." Her opi piped up from behind her.

"I like it too..." Nodding to herself she walked up to it and scanned it, feeling her plates shifting into an entirely new shape in response. She shifted down as soon as her plates finished morphing and revved her powerful engine. It purred like a cybertiger...or Aednat. Yeah probably Aednat cause she was pretty loud.

She shifted back to bi pedal mode and stretched. "That is much better! So much more room now! Thanks Lenny!"

"You're welcome Lilydancer...and please stop calling me Lenny."

She grinned. "Ok Willy!" A loud laugh erupted from her vocaliser in response to the glare that he gave her. She turned and left the room before he could say anything else to her.

The three mechs that she was bonded to followed along close behind her. Her earlier thoughts on what to do with the former two suddenly reared up in her processor when her optics landed on Blue chatting with Annie across the hangar.

She wondered if he would help her make her shinies? Later she would have to ask him about that, after she managed to lose her followers.

For now she could comm him to ask him to meet her. Yes that sounded like a good idea. _**:Hey Blue?:**_

The mech in question's helm popped up swiveling in her direction. _**:Yeah? Did you need something? Well obviously you did because you did comm me! I don't even know why I asked that question! What kind of bot would comm another bot just to comm them right? Well maybe one of the twins would do that to annoy somebot but...Oh! You needed something and I'm rambling again! What did you need Angel?:**_

_**:Umm can you help me with something later?:**_

_**:Of course I can! Whatever you need Angel! You did help me to get Annie to let me court her so I owe you! Oh but that's not why I'm agreeing to this! I'm agreeing to it because we're friends! So what do you need?:**_

_**:Not here. Meet me at your room later okay? At 1900 hours.:**_

_**:Ok.:**_

They both simultaneously cut the comm link. Now all she had to do was lose her companions so that she could actually talk to Blue. Easy.

* * *

><p>Later that night she made her way to Blue's room after landing Sides and Sunny with brig time for a prank. This way she could do what she needed to do without having to worry that they would come after her or interrupt her. And this was definitely not something that she wanted them to overhear.<p>

Stopping outside his door she flared her door wings to see if there were any spark signatures near by that might see her. Nothing brushed over her panels so she turned and swiftly knocked on Blue's door.

After what seemed like forever he opened it and ushered her inside before closing it after them. Blue turned to her with a soft smile and gestured for her to sit down on the couch after he had sat down on it.

She took a seat next to him and placed her servos in her lap delicately. To say that she was nervous was definitely an understatement! Pit she was downright terrified that this whole situation would not work out! What if they didn't actually want to mate with her like she wanted to do with them? What if they just wanted to interface with her? What if they didn't accept her shinies?

"What did you need help with Angel?"

"I...I want to m-m-ak-e shinies...for Sides and Sunny." She stammered out quietly. Her wings jerked before folding down on her almost like a shield. Oh Primus this was so embarrassing to talk about to anybot even Blue! Blue who was her best friend Blue! Well he was one of them! Still this...this was so embarrassing!

There was silence following her statement, one that did little to calm her nerves. In fact it only made it worse! Did Blue think that they would turn her down? Was that why he was not responding to her?!

A soft touch on her shoulder had her snapping her helm up towards Blue's smiling face. "Of course I'll help you Angel. What do you need me to do?"

Her entire frame shuddered with a harsh vent. "You think they'll accept my shinies?"

Blue gave her an odd look. "Of course I do. Those two care about you more than anybot on base. You're the only one that they would accept."

"Really?"

"Really really."

"Blue stop quoting Shrek."

He only shrugged and grinned at her. "So what do you need me to do to help you Angel?"

"Well I need some shiny material to make my shinies with...and umm I was wondering if you knew what a mech would want? I don't know what to make them." She had thought it over quite thoroughly and this was something that was still making her uncertain. With Sunny she was thinking maybe...a mirror or something... Sides...well she had been thinking about making him a shiny slingshot or something. Well she had to make five objects for each of them. Therein lay the problem...what to make?

Blue hopped up from the couch and bounded over to a table in the corner of the room where a decorative box sat. He grabbed it and raced back over to sit it on the table where he promptly opened it.

She cooed softly when an assortment of various shiny objects lit up her vision. Silver, gold, gems...all laying right there for her to stare at. "Where did you get all of these Bluey?" She picked up a small ruby and examined it... Wow the gems were of high quality even.

"We get paid earth credits for our work." Blue shrugged. "So I bought shiny things."

So he had put all of his earth credits into these objects? That meant that she could not just accept them or take them. With a sigh she placed the ruby back into the box despondently. It would be a while before she would be able to do missions so she was not going to be able to pay for shiny objects. That meant that she had to wait for a while still...she didn't want to do that.

Blue seemed to sense her mood change. "What's wrong?"

"I...well you must have spent a lot of time and credits to get these."

"Yes I did."

"And I can't just take them to make my own shinies...and I can't buy my own yet because I don't have any credits. So I have to wait for a while until I can make some."

A soft laugh drew her attention to Blue's grinning face. "Angel I am offering them to you. There is no way that you will use all of it for your shinies. What you don't use you can just give back."

"Really?" She asked in disbelief. Blue would really do that for her? "But I have to make two sets of five shinies for Sides and Sunny right? I'll have to use a lot more material..."

"You only have to make five shinies Angel. There may be two of them, but they are of one spark. So you would give them five shinies regardless because both of them have to mate and bond with you."

"I thought that I had to make a set for each." She admitted.

"No. You only make two sets if you want to court two different mechs. Lets say that you liked Bee and...Hot Rod for instance, then you would make two sets and give it to both of them. Most bots don't do that though because courting is serious, however it has happened before."

Who would want to court Hot Rod? Bee maybe because he was cute and cheerful, but Hot Rod?! Good looks only took you so far and he had reached his limit. Her processor discarded those thoughts for now as she had better things to put her thought capacity towards. "So what should I make them?"

"Whatever you think would suit them. This is entirely up to you to choose what you want to gift them with. But you should know that the shinier the object the more you convey your affection and interest to them. The shinier the better." He pushed the box over towards her again. "Use whatever you want out of here. I can always get more later."

Venting deeply her optics roamed over the objects in the box looking for anything that caught her attention. They landed on a silver horseshoe, a pristine almost crystal looking one. With a soft coo she picked it up and held it up to examine. It was so pretty! She could make Sides a slingshot with this!

Sitting the chosen object down on the table she went back to perusing the items in the box. She pulled out an assortment of rubies to use on whatever she made Sunny, so that his object would have his twin's colors in them. Now all she needed was to find some gold to use on Sides' objects... Wait did they both have to take one, or did they just have to take one? "Umm Blue? Do both of them have to take an object? Or do they just have to take one period?"

"Either way works. But they can take as many objects as they like."

She twittered quietly and continued sifting through the box. Her servo brushed against a pretty little mirror that caught her attention. She lifted it from the box and turned it over in her servos. It was old and worn, but she could make this work, and the glass itself was clean and pretty. Sunny might like it!

She sat that down and pulled out several gold nuggets, and some gold plating. Ooooh and some pretty crystals to line Sunny's mirror with! She was going to do it up with shiny silver plating and red rubies too! Oh and Sides' slingshot was going to be gold with amethyst! Hmm maybe she should put some purple on Sunny's mirror too.

Well she was getting ahead of herself because she had to make five objects and she was only thinking about two. So she added a few odds and ends to her pile for good measure. "I'll pay you back later Blue."

"Don't worry about it Angel. You've already given me enough. If it wasn't for you I would not be courting Annie right now...I owe you for helping me. So think of this as a way for me to repay you for all that you did. If that's ok I mean...well I'm going to do it anyways. So don't worry about paying me back like I said."

She grinned at Blue's rambling. Silly Blue... "So the next step is to make the shinies!"

"Yup. I can help you with that too."

Good because she wasn't very good at making things. That was more up Sunny and Sides' alley not her's. Now all she had to do was make the shinies and keep them from finding out!

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV-One week later)<p>

Red had been avoiding them again all week long. She had been spending most of her time with Bluestreak much to his irritation. Every time he saw her she was within touching distance of the Blue gunner, either that or they were speaking quietly in hushed tones too low for his audio receptors to make out.

It did not sit well with him at all... He couldn't even recharge tonight because of it. Something was going on with her and he planned on finding out what! Her avoidance tactic was only going to get her so far and she had reached the end of his patience.

Beside him Sides groaned and flopped onto his side facing him. "Sunny how can I recharge when you're over there slagging yourself off? Leave it be for now brother. If she wants to talk she will. Remember what Ratchet said; do not push her."

He only growled and flipped over so that he was facing the wall. "You act like it's not even bothering you when I know it is! I can feel it as clearly as I can feel my own irritation! You want to know why she's spending so much time with Bluestreak too!" If anything was going on with her and that gunner...Bluestreak was so offline.

"Bluestreak is courting Annie Sunny, I doubt that he would cheat on her with Lily. And Lily would not cheat on us with Bluestreak." Sides reassured him. Or at least he was trying to, but even he was bothered by their sparkmate wanting to spend so much time with another mech.

"She doesn't know that she's our mate Sides. What if she likes Bluestreak? We wouldn't even know it because she blocks the bond constantly!"

"Sunny..." Sides trailed off when his own processor started conjuring up images of Red pursuing another mech.

He growled and kicked his twin's knee joint making him yelp. "Stop it slagger! I'm already having a hard enough time with this as it is!" His spark was almost completely overcome with jealousy and need, Sides' thoughts only making it harder for him to control himself.

"You aft!" Sides hissed, the distinct sound of him rubbing his joint could be heard an astrosecond later. "Glitching about it isn't going to help the situation at all! Just calm down alre-"

A loud crash from next door cut Sides off mid sentence. Or more like the loud cursing from a very familiar feminine voice did. "SLAGGING MOTHER OF A GLITCHED UP FRAGGING SLAGGER!"

Both of them jolted up at the exact same time whipping their helms around towards the wall that separated their room from Bluestreak's room faster than a human could blink. "What the slag?!" He snarled irately. What the pit was Red doing in Bluestreak's room at this time of night?!

His processor conjured up horrible images of her interfacing with Bluestreak, or kissing him, or something of that nature. All because she didn't know that she was already mated to them! He wouldn't even be mad at her if it happened because she probably didn't know better! No he would offline Bluestreak because that slagger knew about them!

"Sunny I don't think that Blue-" Sides was cut off by another loud...moan?

"BLUE!"

He was up and off the berth before he even realized that he had moved! Practically running to the door he sprinted next door to Bluestreak's room with Sides trailing along after him. They knelt down next to the door and pressed their audio receptors to it so that they could hear what was going on inside. If Bluestreak wanted to live he better not be...

"Ouch! Blue it hurts! Knock it off!" Red suddenly squealed. "It's too tight it's not going to loosen up!"

His vents hitched...he fragging knew it!

"Relax Angel! This will go by easier if you just relax and loosen up! We'll just stick it...right in here!"

"OW! BLUE YOU GLITCH! THAT FRAGGING HURTS! YOU CAN'T STICK SOMETHING INTO A SPACE TOO SMALL FOR IT! STOP POKING ME WITH THAT THING!"

"Angel it's gotta go in! Just let me stick it in the hole! Relax! This is a pretty straight forward process if you just calm down!"

They-they could only be doing that! It was official...Bluestreak was dead!

Jumping up he pressed the button to enter the room and when the door console flashes red signalling that it was locked, he just pulled out his wrist blade and slammed it down into the console. With a roar he fisted the wires in the same servo and yanked them free causing the door to perform an emergency lock override sequence.

When the door to the room opened he practically dove in like an enraged animal. He didn't even care that he knocked his paint and chipped it when he rushed into the room! No all he cared about was the sight of Bluestreak's back exposed, a smaller purple pair of legs easily distinguishable between his legs.

He gave an angry roar of his engines and charged. "BLUESTREAK!"

Both Bluestreak and Red turned in their direction in surprise. "Sunny?!" Red murmured quietly, but when she saw him charging Blue she squeaked and pushed the gunner out of the way. She too dove to avoid being run over by him. "Sunny what the pit is wrong with you?!"

In his scattered processor he did not even take notice of the fact that she was still fully armored, AND that her interface port was completely covered. He was just too far gone at this point for sensible communication. With another angry roar he turned back to Bluestreak and lunged again.

"SUNNY STOP!"

Something slammed into his back unexpectedly with enough force to send him sprawling ont his knee joints. Firm purple arms wrapped around his neck to hold her frame to his. "LET ME GO RED! HE WAS INTERFACING WITH YOU! I'LL FRAGGING KILL HIM!"

The sounds of two sharp vents hitching chorused simultaneously. "WHAT?! NO WE WERE NOT!" Red suddenly shrieked in his audio receptor. "SIDES PUT YOUR SWORDS AWAY RIGHT NOW! LET ME EXPLAIN BEFORE YOU JUMP- WELL YOU ALREADY DID JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS!"

His optics were locked on Bluestreak as the gunner cowered against a table in the corner. He hoped that he was conveying the gunner's imminent future with his gaze...a swift painful offlining!

"Sunny it isn't what it seems like." Red whispered against his audio receptor. "Please just put your weapons away and let me explain."

"Make it fast!" He snapped as he sheathed his swords and turned to her after she had hopped down from his back. As he gazed down at her smaller form all he could think of was her taking Bluestreak to her berth! All he could see was her beauty, it was all supposed to be their's not Bluestreak's!

She scowled at him. "I popped my door wing out of the joint a few moments ago." Their sparkmate revealed before turning her back so that they would seem she lifted her wires out of the way to show her wing hanging there loosely. "I smacked my wing into the wall and tore it from its socket so Blue was trying to push it back in. But I was tense because it hurt so he was trying to get me to relax so that he could fix it. That was when you two came in and glitched!" At the end of her explanation she huffed and crossed her arms across her chassis. "Can you please fix this now Blue?"

"Umm I think that it would be better if you came over here...away from them. I do want to live long enough to sparkbond to my femme you know? And the twins seem like they might want to offline me right now. Well I know that Sunstreaker does because he always wants to offline everything. But yeah that's beside the point, come over here and I'll fix it." Bluestreak rambled on.

"Behave!" Red snapped before she left their side to approach Bluestreak.

His optics tracked her every move as she exposed her back to the gunner so that Bluestreak could pop her joint back into place. He itched to just tear the slagger into scrap metal for even thinking about having her in his room after hours! And her small twitch of pain and discomfort didn't lessen the intensity of his protective programming either.

"What were you even doing in here this late at night anyways Lily? It's after midnight!" Sides rolled up beside him and plopped down on the back of the couch. For some reason Red squealed and tugged him off the same klik that he sat down. "Lily? What the slag?"

"They are finished Angelwing." Bluestreak stated quietly.

"Not now Blue." Red ground out in a trembling voice.

"But you might as well do it now." Bluestreak pressed.

"BLUE! KNOCK IT OFF OR I'LL MAKE YOUR ACTUAL BONDING PROPOSAL EVEN MORE EMBARRASSING FOR YOU!" Red snapped at the blue gunner heatedly. They engaged each other in a heated glaring match for reasons completely unknown.

Well they were unknown until Bluestreak shifted slightly exposing more of the table behind him. Something shiny caught his optics making him zone in on whatever it was.

A group of five...shiny...objects? His vents hitched with a faint rattle when he realized what she had been doing with Bluestreak for all this time. She had been making shinies for them...at least they better be for them. He tapped Sides' arm and pointed at the tabletop. "Shiny objects."

Sides' vents hitched as well as hope and happiness flared through their bond. His twin approached the table and gently picked up one of the objects causing the staring contest between Red and Bluestreak to cease.

"SIDES NO!" Red shrieked mid dive as she scrambled to cover the table with a tarp. "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

All Sides did was turn to him and hold out a small red mirror which he took so that he could look it over. He held it in his servos and inspected the clear shining glass that had obviously had an expensive cleaner used to restore it. Various crystals lined the edge of the mirror, a shining purple amethyst popping up periodically in the array.

His optics were drawn to what Sides was holding as well. A pure silver horseshoe that had been crafted into a slingshot. The silver handle was decorated in rubies, amethyst, and streaks of gold, not too much that it looked gaudy either. It looked like Red wasn't quite finished with it yet because it didn't have a string yet. It was still very pretty though.

So she had made these for them? She had to have because the color schemes were just too perfect for it to be anybot else. And when he looked up at her she was hiding behind Bluestreak peeking out slightly from behind the gunner's shoulder plates.

Ah yes he remembered now! They had to accept their objects to formally begin courting. Again. His spark hummed in exasperation tinged with happiness. Yes they had to court her again, but it was worth it so long as she was able to make new and better memories. And courtship, their courtship was something that he wanted her to carry in her spark forever so he could and would give her what she wanted and needed again.

He purposefully met her optics at the same time that he subspaced the mirror. Her optics widened comically as a soft nervous coo drifted over the gathered bots. "I accepted your shiny baby."

Sides followed his example and subspaced his own object with a devilish grin. "Me too. This means you're our femme now right? We accepted the shinies!"

Bluestreak tried to push Red out from behind him. "Angel this is the time where you uhhh go back to their quarters and discuss this whole situation." He informed her.

Red only squeaked and ducked back down behind the blue mech again. Her wires latched onto Bluestreak's arms and legs to hold them together making the gunner sigh tiredly.

"Angel they accepted your shinies! Why are you still so nervous?"

"Yeah why are you so nervous?" He interjected quietly. She was being very...cute right now, but he wanted to take her back to what would, hopefully be their quarters sooner rather than later. They did need to talk now that she had gifted them with her shinies. Was she worried that they would try and interface with her already? "We're just going to talk baby. Nothing more unless you want it."

Well she was big enough now...for one of them at a time at least. It was doubtful that she would ever be big enough for Sides and him to take her together.

Sides turned and gave him a sharp look. **'What the frag Sunny?! And you said that I was a perverse face maniac!'**

He didn't respond to that as he stalked over towards Bluestreak and attempted to shove him aside. The wires that Red had wrapped around him prevented it however, which grated at his nerves. The only mech that Red should want to hide behind was them! And maybe Ratchet sometimes... "Come on baby. Let Bluestreak go."

She only squeaked and proceeded to use Bluestreak as a shield...er more than she already was.

With a sigh he reached over and grabbed a bundle of wires on her neck causing her frame to go limp. "Primus femme this doesn't need to be so hard." He muttered as he disentangled her limp wires from Bluestreak and swept her up into his arms once the gunner was free. Without another word he turned and carried her from the room.

"Sorry about the door Bluestreak." He heard Sides apologize.

Maybe Bluestreak shouldn't have other mech's femmes in his quarters after hours? Then his door would not have had to be torn open he thought as he opened the door to their room and walked inside. His optics landed on the berth and the couch, his frame veering off towards the latter. The last thing that he wanted was to scare her by making her think that they were trying to get into her port.

He sat down on the couch with her cradled in his lap comfortably.

Sides plopped down on the other side and scooted until he was flush against his frame. "About time Lily!" He teased the small femme playfully. "We thought that you would never give our shinies to us!"

Their sparkmate shifted against him while twittering softly. "What made you so sure that I was going to make them for you anyways? I could have been making them for...Bee or something."

His spark pulsed possessively in his chassis as he clutched her to him tighter. "You would never choose a mech like that over us. For several reasons actually. One being that he's smaller than you. Two being that he's not nearly as handsome as I am. And three being that you are not stupid enough to choose a scraplet over us."

She hummed quietly. "Bee is not a scraplet."

"It doesn't matter what he is right now. What matters is that you chose us." Not that it was really a choice because her spark would only ever be completed by their bond. But of course he would not tell her that right now. There were other more important things that he could say. Things that she deserved to hear him say.

A heavy vent escaped his frame as he reached up with one servo and tilted her helm towards him. Meeting her optics he slowly leaned down and pressed his mouth components against her's. Her soft more malleable components pressed back hesitantly, their slightly cooler temperature making sparks light off inside of him. Or maybe it was the fact that she had been expecting his affection and did not push it away that made him so pleased?

Whatever the case he kept the contact brief and pulled back quickly so as not to scare her. "My femme." He purred possessively and nuzzled her helm with his. "I love you."

She clicked quietly hesitantly nuzzling him back. "Mine?"

"Your's." He responded to her soft spoken question. Always her's. She was the only femme that had ever accepted them for all of what they were. In both lives.

**'My turn.'** Sides rumbled in displeasure over the bond.

With a sigh he relinquished their mate to his twin watching interestedly as Sides swept her mouth components up in another equally soft kiss. It may have only been roughly a year and a half since she had changed but he had missed this terribly.

Soon, soon she would be their's even in her spark. She would recognize their bond for what it was, and then...things could go back to the way they were. They could be proper mates again. How he was looking forward to that day.

"Mine." Red purred up at Sides.

"Your's." They both murmured together.

They would always be her's. Forever.

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><p>R&amp;R! Check out the poll that I am putting up please!<p> 


	42. Chapter 42

There is a new poll in my profile page please look at it and vote on it! I personally want to do a Blaster fic, but I'll let you guys decide. Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Lots of humor and fluff in bound! Oh and I added some choices to the poll so check it out!

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><p>It was kind of strange to her when she thought about it. Just a few weeks ago she had been too embarrassed and conflicted to even think about allowing the twins to court her. And now here she was walking down the hall holding both of their servos while they took her to the med bay for her shift with opi. Yes shift! She was now getting paid for her work!<p>

But that was irrelevant right now. She was being courted by Sides and Sunny, which consisted of them walking her wherever she needed to go, and doting on her, and taking her out for drives in the city. Things like that, but they always managed to make her spark speed up a little bit whenever they walked into a room where she was.

They were so good to her about everything too! And by that she meant that they were understanding of the fact that she was not yet ready for interfacing. So they never even pressured her for it or anything for that matter. She really did appreciate that little fact since last time she had been in that position it had terrified her.

But they hadn't tried her for it yet so she was getting ahead of herself. It did feel so amazing just to be walking like them like this. All cuddled between them protectively like she was some sort of precious jewel to be guarded fiercely. And to them she probably was just that.

"You are, though I think that your beauty outstrips a jewel."

She cooed softly at Sides' compliment and brushed her side against his affectionately. The brief thought to rub her wings against him crossed her processor but she refrained. That was only to be done if you wanted to interface...but then again they probably didn't know about any of the door language. So she could probably do it and get away with it.

Still it was probably not a good idea, and she was forced to push it away for later when they stopped outside the med bay doors. For once she wasn't looking forward to being cooped up inside the bay all day long... So far away from her twins.

Sunny turned her to him and pressed a chaste kiss to her mouth components. "We'll come back and get you after you're done babe." He told her after he pulled back. "We have patrol for the day, but we'll be here after we're done."

Before she could comment her frame was being pulled around so that Sides could envelop her mouth as well. She relaxed into it and pressed back shyly servos coming to rest on his chassis in a feather soft touch. The contact ended quickly with him pulling back after a few astroseconds.

He touched her cheek arch softly while gazing down at her in adoration. "We'll be here love. Don't let Ratchet belt you with a wrench while you're in there." Sides joked with a grin.

She giggled and pushed at him playfully. "He only ever hits everybot else on base not me! Besides!" With a flourish she pulled a set of wrenches from her subspace and flashed them in front of the faces of her intended mates. "I can belt him back too if he does! And every other bot on base starting with Skids and Mudflap!" And if they came into the med bay with some stupid injury today she would too! Aaaaaannnnd since she was sure that they would she was also sure that she would get to test out her new wrenches today! YAY!

Sides only looked at her warily though there was a grin on his face as well. "I would pay to see you hit Ratchet with a wrench! Just don't hit me with the wrench cause it really hurt the last time you did it."

Golden arms wrapped around her from behind as a large broad chassis pressed against her back. "And I would pay to see that, and to see you hit Skids and Mudflap." Sunny purred in her audio receptors making her frame shiver. He pressed another kiss to the sensitive area before releasing her.

"Flirt." She stammered dumbly. A sharp squeak left her vocaliser when her golden intended stalked passed her and caressed her oversensitive door wing gently. "Sunny!" She snorted out a laugh and batted his servo away roughly to save herself from the ticklish sensation.

Both of them grinned at her as they backed off slightly down the corridor.

"Sorry baby but I had to do it." Sunny offlined one optic in a wink.

"See ya after patrol sweetspark." Sides waved at her before he dragged Sunny off around the corner.

A soft sigh escaped her vocaliser when they vanished from sight leaving her alone. The only thing that made it somewhat better was the soft caress of their sparks against her's. She responded in kind before she turned and walked into the med bay quietly. **{Be safe guys.}**

**{We will sweets.}** Sides responded a split astrosecond before the bond dulled down.

When she entered the med bay her opi was working on Flareup. He looked up when she entered and waved her over. "I was wondering when you were going to get here sweetling."

"Hi Lilydancer." Flareup waved at her boisterously.

"System update?" She guessed when her optics caught sight of Flareup's open sync port. Well obviously that was what was going to happen otherwise the port would not be open.

"Yes. I just finished working on Flareup a breem or so ago." Opi responded after flipping the port shut. "I need you to watch the med bay today while I go and sit in on a meeting between Optimus and Galloway. We need some more medical supplies so Optimus thought it pertinent to have me there." He looked up and ushered Flareup off the berth. "You are done Flareup. Take it easy and do not strain yourself for a few days."

The demo femme nodded once and then she was out the door without a backwards glance.

Leaving her alone with her creator. Honestly she wasn't sure if she was ready to be in charge of the med bay without either opi or First Aid there with her. Speaking of which where was First Aid? "Opi why isn't Aid here? Shouldn't he be in charge of the med bay when you're gone?"

"He had patrol last night so he's recharging now. I told him that you would be able to handle watching the med bay for a few hours when he asked about my decision to leave you in charge."

She started in surprise. First Aid had asked her opi about his judgment? And opi had told him that he trusted her to run the med bay when she was only an apprentice medic? She was only barely into her training! What if there was an emergency? What was she supposed to do? "But opi...I'm only in training. I can't just take over the med bay."

"You can if I say you can." Her opi commented dryly. His optics drifted up and locked with her's as their bond swelled with confidence and reassurance. "I believe that you can do this. Do not fret about it. The odds of an actual emergency are not very likely so it will be fine. If anything should happen that you require my immediate assistance with just comm me."

Her spark sped up in nervousness and anxiety but she nodded in acquiescence all the same. If her opi told her to watch the med bay she would watch the med bay and that was all there was to it. Besides it was a chance to work on her repairing skills.

"That is a good way to look at it." Opi told her as he patted her helm affectionately ruffling her small wing like antennas. "Comm either myself or First Aid if something important does come up sweetling. One of us will come. There is a list of things that need to be done on my desk. Do as much as you can before I return." With that he sidestepped her and left the room after pressing a kiss to her helm.

For a moment she just stood there in the center of the room doing nothing, still too shocked and surprised to really think straight. After a moment she shook herself out of it and retrieved the list of things that her opi had left for her to do.

The first thing that popped up on the screen was organizing the new supplies that had come in. Easy enough.

She placed her datapad back down and approached the stack of boxes in the corner grabbing one to place on the counter. Using her wrist blade she opened it and peered at the glass jars contained within. Medical salves. So that meant that they went in the top right cupboards with the more fragile supplies.

Too bad for her that she was too short to reach the top cupboards, and her opi would have her aft if she accidentally dropped his salves because she used her wires...which she was still learning how to manipulate. So she grabbed a small bot sized stepstool to hop onto. She climbed up onto it and pushed some of her wires out of her face when they fell over her shoulders.

When only a few astroseconds later they fell back in her face again she growled in frustration and swept them up into a messy bun using several wires to hold the rest in place. As soon as her vision was not being obstructed she started stacking the jars into the cupboard carefully.

But it was soooo boring! So while she was doing it she focused on her bond with the twins and poked them over it. **{I got stuck organizing supplies all day long!}** She fake whined over the bond. A bond that she still did not completely understand yet. Whatever kind of bond it was, it was strong and stable and she was slowly starting to turn to it more.

**{That sucks. You could be running patrol with Ironhide all day though baby. That sucks even more than stacking supplies.}** Sunny sent his own irritation and frustration over the bond. Along with a yearning accompanied by a flash of her face.

She blushed heavily. **{Oh come on Sunny! You don't miss me that much!}**

**{Oh but we do sweetspark. How we do.}** Sides murmured sadly as he sent the same feelings over the bond. **{Your beautiful face...so much better than staring at Ironhide's back end while we patrol. Alas we must wait for patrol to end before we can be reunited with our lovely sweetspark.}**

Her nasal ridge scrunched up in a grimace. Sides sounded like Hamlet or something and it was by far one of the weirdest things that she had ever heard. **{Sides I am going to have bad vid files about that whole bit that you just flew into there.}**

**{Aww my words of love and adoration disgust you?}** He asked in mock hurt.

For a moment she said nothing as she stacked the last of the jars into the cupboard and pushed the empty box away. **{No they don't. But the way that you said them was weird.}**

**{But I meant what I said so why does it matter how I said it?}** Sides shot back in amusement.

**{Sides...just say them like a normal bot. No more Hamlet and Shakespeare tangents okay?}** She grinned and grabbed another box to cut open. This one was filled with tubes of solvent so they would go in the drawers nearest to the first medical berth.

**{I don't see how it's a big deal if I want to quote the poetic humans. Earth femmes like that kind of stuff.}** Sides snickered as she hopped down from the step stool and carried her box over to the drawers.

**{Sides how would you feel if I started talking to you like a lovestruck scrapling?}**

**{I would be like; My Primus! Oh how you love me so much that you have given me a femme that adores me so completely! I will forever be in your debt my powerful God! Every time I interface with her I will think of-}**

Before Sides could break into another long and no doubt disgusting tangent Sunny cut in exasperatedly. **{Sides shut the slag up! I do not even want to hear you finish that thought! Why would you ever want to think of another mech while interfacing with our femme?}**

A sharp lurch hit her from her chassis when her spark stuttered in mortification. **{Oh my Primus shut the slag up both of you! I do not need to hear about any of that! ARGH MY POOR VIRGIN PROCESSOR!}** She exclaimed dramatically over the bond. Ugh why must they talk like this? Well it was the first time that they had actually spoken about interfacing after they had started courting but still...

**{Sorry.}** Sides snickered.

**{You'll have to learn to be comfortable with it at some point baby. How are we supposed to mate if you are so squeamish about facing?}**

She finished organizing the solvent and slid the drawer shut quietly before tossing the empty box in a corner to be disposed of later. An exasperated shove over the bond was her response to what Sunny had said.** {Oh well, I was thinking that you two could go without. A celibate mating bond.}** She joked.

Immediate horror raced through every part of the bond. **{NOOOOOOO! Sweetspark please don't tell me that you actually believe that?! Please don't make me go for the rest of my life without ever tasting your frame!?}**

**{I'm with Sides on this one.}** Sunny inserted in a gruff tone.

A soft amused laugh fell from her vocaliser. Wow she was having way too much fun with this whole courtship thing! **{I guess you better stop quoting Hamlet to me then Sides.}**

There was an exasperated sigh. **{Very well then.}** It went quiet for another moment. **{We have to dull the bond down for a bit sweets. Ironhide's on some tangent about us not paying attention when he almost ran over an old lady crossing the street. See you after patrol?}**

**{See you after patrol.}**

The bond went mostly silent after that so she busied herself with organizing the new welding metal, the welder gas, the boxes of wires and circuits. Things like that. And pit was it so monotonous to do this all day long! It needed to be done however so she didn't complain about it. Much.

An hour passed by while she was doing this with no disturbances in the med bay to distract her. But alas, all good things must come to an end. And the end of her quiet came screeching to an end when Skids and Mudflap came barreling into the med bay all beat up and dented.

"Yo' glitchass foo! Yo' don' dented up my face pla'es!" Mudflap punched Skids in the helm.

"Dumbaft slaggstain! Yo' da one dat scuffed my armo'!" Skids responded by elbowing Mudflap in the chassis.

The two of them started beating on each other while she watched in amusement. An idea flooded her processor making her have to stifle a sadistic smile. Oh this was going to be sooo good! It would probably get her brig time but it would still be good!

While they were fighting she pushed two berths together so that when she treated them they were laying right next to each other. And she said treat metaphorically, what she was really going to do was make them regret cluttering up her opi's med bay with their idiocy. Luckily she had learned how to put bots into stasis recently... Poor slaggers were never going to know what hit them!

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><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

Patrol was boring! Being stuck with Ironhide only made it more boring! A whole eight hours of being forced to drive around with the weapon's specialist was killer on his processor.

That was why he was so excited to return to base. Or more specifically the femme waiting for them at base. And luckily they were already at the base! Things just got better and better! And they would after he stuffed glitter and glue up Ironhide's cannons later!

As soon as they drove into the hangar he shifted up from his alt mode and took off in the direction of the med bay. Lily was going to be waiting for them there! Then they could take her to their room and kiss her and watch movies with her and romance her!

"Do you ever shut the slag up?!" Sunny snapped at him.

"Nope! Somebot has to talk for both of us since you're so bad at it."

Irritation and frustration was the only non verbal response that he got. And of course Sunny did not respond verbally because he was bad at talking...just like he always said that his twin was.

He was practically bouncing on his wheels by the time that they came upon the med bay! Lily! Lily! How he had missed his beautiful Lily while they were gone! Maybe he should make her a song or something to show her how much he loved her?

His thought only earned him a narrowed gaze from his twin when they walked into the med bay.

Almost immediately upon entering his optics fell on Lily stacking supplies in the cupboard while Ratchet was sitting hunched over a desk. His optics were more focused on the delicious curve of her aft that was no longer obstructed by her wires which she was now wearing in a high messy bun on the back of her helm. The only thing that he could think when she bent over and exposed her aft more to them was...that aft!

"Pervert." Lily admonished him without ever turning around. She stacked some more disinfecting solvent into the cupboard before turning and hopping down from the stool she was on. A massive grin was on her face and amusement was flooding the bond. "I spent most of the day in the brig!"

"Why?" Sunny asked her.

At the question Ratchet snorted and swiveled his stool in their direction. He looked very amused. "My sparkling decided to glue Skids' olfactory intake into Mudflap's aft pipe, and vice versa. Then, while they were in stasis she siphoned overprocessed energon into their tanks to make them backdraft in each other's smell receptors." A warm yet scathing look was directed at Lily at the end of that sentence. "Little monster. My little monster."

"And when Prowly came to get me I played him a song! This is how it goes!"

_"Forgive us for what we have done! Cause we're young! We're young! We're young! I said forgive us for what we have done! Cause we're yoooong! We're yoooung! We're yoooung!"_ Lily grinned and bounced back and forth on her pedes excitedly. "I kind of felt bad because he almost glitched...but then Uncle Jazz laughed about it so I didn't feel quite as bad anymore." She shrugged, grin still in place.

He couldn't help it...his jaw dropped briefly, before he busted out laughing. She! She had! She had glued their olfactory intakes into each other's aftpipes?! AND FUELED THEM WITH OVERPROCESSED ENERGON?! That stuff was the rankest smelling stuff when it came back out!

Even Sunny choked out a laugh. "Wh-what?!"

Ratchet snorted. "Prowl put her in the brig for six hours because of it. That being just enough time for me to pry Skids and Mudflap apart..." The CMO scrunched his nasal ridge up in disgust and snorted. "My question is where did you get the overprocessed energon from? It was by far the smelliest backdraft that it has ever been my displeasure to scent."

Lily grinned. "I made it." She looked so immensely proud of herself after making that statement.

It was very cute. Well hot. Nothing about her was anything less than hot. And no he was not being biassed. Well maybe a little bit! But that was beside the point! This prank...may be the prank of the vorn! He was only a little put off that she had come up with it and not him! Even that was not enough to sullen his mood enough that he would not embrace her...which he did. "Lily...you are a genius my femme. Did you take vid files so that we could see?" He peered down at her pleasingly. Please! Please let him see the genius prank in action! PLEASE!

Her expression fell. "I did but...Uncle Prowl made opi delete them. So tragic."

Tragic indeed. "Ratchettttt!" He whined mournfully. "Why did you delete the files?"

"Because the SIC told me to." Ratchet replied. Even he looked angry about having to delete the vid files.

Nooo! Well at least he could technically see them by accessing the sparkbond. But he couldn't use the memories as blackmail quite as easily...so tragic. Still she deserved a pat on the back struts for the sheer deviousness of the prank. "This calls for a round of high grade!"

Before Ratchet could put a damper on his plans he hastily dragged Lily from the room. He commed Jazz on the way to the rec room since he knew that the saboteur would not pass up on a chance to be there for Lily's first...er first experience in this frame with high grade. **'Hey Jazz you down for getting Lily overcharged in commemoration for her amazing prank today?'**

Within astroseconds the TIC replied with an amused, **'Of cou'se ah am! See ya dere!'**

"Umm I don't think this is a good idea. Opi's going to murder you two." Lily looked between the two of them warily when he tugged her into the rec room.

Thankfully the only bots in there were Flareup and Bluestreak at the moment. Both of who looked up upon their entry. "What are you three doing?" The former asked quietly.

"High grade. Celebration. Lily's prank with Skids and Mudflap was awesome." He hurried to get out as he pushed their femme into a seat.

Jazz came sprinting into the rec room with Hot Rod and Ironhide not even a klik later. Each of them had several cartons of high grade in their servos and matching grins on their faces. Well besides Ironhide who looked irritated to even be there. "We 'ere! We gots da 'igh grade!" Jazz grinned and bounded over to the table they were at. He slammed the cartons that he had down on the tabletop and ripped the box open.

A cube was hastily shoved into each of their servos, and while he and Sunny immediately tossed the sweet thick fuel back Lily looked at it dubiously. He patted her back struts and pushed the cube more towards her face. "Aww come on Lily this is a milestone in your life! Have some fun! We're having a celebration!"

"Why do I feel like this celebration is going to result in me being a blubbering mass of sniveling circuits on the floor?" She muttered as she tipped the cube to her lips and guzzled it down. A soft pleased purr emanated from her chassis immediately upon the sweet liquid touching her glossa.

"Ats it baby girl! Drink dat 'igh grade!" Jazz cheered her on while she sucked the cube down.

She finished it and sat the empty cube down expectantly. "I don't feel slag."

"Well that's because you have to drink more!" He told her enthusiastically. Jazz handed him another three cubes, which he distributed to Sunny and Lily respectively. "To sweetspark's pranking prowess and to the dumbaft twins having their olfactory intakes glued into each other's aftpipes!"

Everybot gathered a cube and raised them. "Cheers!"

Now this was how they threw a party Autobot style! What was the worst that could happen?

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><p>Lily was laying sprawled on the floor at his pedes looking over charged beyond belief. How had this even happened? He had to wonder briefly what the answer to that question was, but when he saw the large, too large, stack of cubes that signalled what Lily had ingested... Well he knew what had happened.<p>

Bot after bot had shoved cube after cube of high grade into her servos resulting in the mass of wasted femme laying prostrate on the floor. He was slightly tipsy, not enough to think that this situation was perfectly ok. Because it wasn't. If Ratchet found Lily like this he was going to flip!

A loud giggle snapped him out of his internal musings in time to see Lily staring at a sheep on tv. She snorted loudly and tried to force herself up from the ground. "Why is there a caterpillar sheep on tv? Flareup do you..." She hiccupped loudly and fell onto her side next to the downed demolitions femme. "Do you see that slag? It's a caterpillar sheep! What the-fragberries?"

Flareup snorted out a laugh and turned her drunken gaze in the direction of the tv. "It's...it is a caterpillar sheep! Lily's soooo obser-obser-yeah that word!"

Funny how only Sunny, himself, Jazz, and Ironhide were the only bots left in the room that were even remotely close to being sober. Hot Rod, Bluestreak, Flareup, and Lily were gone. No they were beyond three sheets to the wind. All of them had passed that and then some...especially Lily.

"Thas...thas how ah roll glitch!"

Their sparkmate managed to get her pedes under herself and push herself up from the ground so that she could help Flareup get up as well. "Gettup! Gettup Flarey!" She chanted as she tugged the other femme up as she swayed precariously back and forth.

"Maybe we should have been watching her more?" Sunny snorted in amusement.

"Maybe. But where is the fun in-" He suddenly lunged to catch Lily when she stumbled and tripped over a table with a loud squeal of surprise. She may or may not have yelled something about a demon table that would never take her down alive as well but that was all beside the point.

His arms wrapped around her and tugged her back upright.

She hiccupped and patted his chassis roughly. "Thanks beautiful!" She clutched at his neck in a death hug and slurred something incomprehensible. "Sides there's, there's a caterpillar sheep on tv. Can Jacky make me one in real life?"

"Umm no I don't think so sweetspark."

"Awwww...but it reminds me of Skyrim! Have you ever played that game? I...I fusrodah'd the slag outta Alduin bro. That big black scaley fragger didn't even know what hit him! Then! Then I shot him in the afthole with a daedric arrow!"

"That's nice." Was all he could think to say as he tugged her over to sit next to Sunny on the couch. "Sit there for a klik ok?"

"Okey dokey artichokey! Where's that even from anyways?" She looked around in confusion before her optics landed on Sunny. "SUNNY YOU'RE HERE!"

His twin quickly found himself tackled from the couch in a death hug by their mate. "Red what the slag? Next time we're not going to let her drink as much- WHOA!" Sunny growled low following his exclamation. "Baby stop biting me!"

From the husky tone of voice, and from the pleasure coursing through the bond he could tell that Sunny was not feeling pain. Lily sure was a fun drunk. Now if only he could get her to turn that mouth on his neck or something!

"You taste good!" Lily slurred as she noisily licked Sunny's neck cables. She suddenly lost interest and rolled off of his twin so that she could army crawl across the room towards the tv and gaming system. "Skyrim! I'm going to kill Henry the troll!"

All he could do was watch her make her way to the entertainment center while wondering internally; Who the frag Henry the troll was? He heard the laughter from Jazz and Ironhide as they too watched the display that the drunk bots were making.

By now Bluestreak and Hot Rod were dancing some strange waltz to a song called Timber. Well he said that subjectively! Hot Rod was actually pulling a barely conscious Bluestreak around the cleared out section of the room while the blue gunner looked ready to either pass out from being overcharged, or punch Hot Rod in the face. If only he could get his servo up to do it. That was the real question!

Flareup had made her way over to the entertainment center as well and was now shouting commands at Lily...who was riding a horse into a big rock on Skyrim.

"MOVE ROCK! I'M THE DRAGONBORN MOTHERFRAGGER! RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!" She yelled at her character as she wildly jerked the controller around in her servos. "DON'T MAKE ME FUS YO AFT!" When the rock...didn't move...she jumped off the horse and shouted at the rock, only to get even more enraged when the rock did not go flying across the screen. "AWWW NOW IT IS SO ON!" With that she proceeded to draw her bow and shoot arrow after arrow at the rock, or more specifically over the top of the rock. That is how bad her aim was when she was over charged.

"DOWN! DOWN! LILY SHOOT DOWN MORE!" Flareup screeched.

"I AM! LOOK! THIS ROCK THINKS HE'S TALOS I'M TELLING YOU! WELL FRAG TALOS I AM SPARTACUS!" Lily jumped up on the table and started jamming buttons on her controller making her character start slashing at the rock, catching her horse and killing it in the crossfire. Almost immediately she wailed loudly in loss and plopped back down onto her knees joints. "NOOOOOO MONKEYBREAD! WHY?! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE JUST STOOD THERE WHILE I TAUGHT TALOS A LESSON!"

"Umm yeah this was a bad idea."

"You think?"

"Yes Sunny I think it was. It's funny but somebot's going to hear them."

"I'LL THRALL YO AFT GLITCH!"

"YOU MISSED LILY!"

"NAW I DID'N! LOOK I RESSURECTED MARTIN FROM OBLIVION! LOOK!" Their sparkmate protested while pointing at a ghostly specter on the screen that was identified as Lucien Lachance. "Oh wait that's Lucy goosey! The guy that got his entrails eaten by Arwen in Oblivs."

Ironhide snorted at the two femmes and guzzled down his own cube of high grade. "This is funny and all but Ratchet is going to have your afts when he finds out how over charged she is."

He winced as a ghost of pain flashed across the pain receptors in his helm. Maybe it would be a good idea not to send her back to her quarters tonight?

Flareup broke out another two cubes from her subspace handing one to Lily while she played. Well Lily's servos were full of controller so Flareup placed the rim of the cube in her mouth components instead. "Cheers!"

Together they down their cubes while Lily somehow managed to fight off a dragon without even looking at the screen. She released her now empty cube and jumped up onto her pedes. "Frag you dragon! I am the Dragonborn slayer of Alduin bitch! YOU CAN'T STOP ME! EAT FUS BITCH! THAT'S FORCE IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT!"

"How did they get more high grade?" Sunny piped up a klik or so after the last display. "Didn't we take it all from them?"

"I thought so?" It came out as more of a question than anything because he was pretty sure that they had taken all of the high grade from the femmes...and from Hot Rod and Bluestreak, who were now dancing the robot monkey with-Rosanna?! When the frag did she get in here?!

"Ohohohohohohoh! Forgive us for what we have done! Cause we're young! We're young! We're young!" Rosanna sang out prompting the other femmes to turn and look at her in surprise. "I SAID FORGIVE US FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE! CAUSE WE'RE YOUNG! WE'RE YOUNG! WE'RE YOUNG!"

Lily discarded the controller and bounded over to Rosanna who was seated on Hot Rod's shoulder. She grabbed the cassette up and spun her around as she started busting out the words to the song with Rosie. "I make mistakes that I learn from! Cause I'm young! Yeah I'm young! I make mistakes that I learn from! Cause I'm young! Yeah I'm young!" Only Lily sounded more deep and refined than Rosie did. Her tone of voice did not really fit the song that Rosie was playing from her speakers and singing to, but it was still very beautiful. Deep yet light and smooth.

And then Hot Rod started singing along too...which was just weird. "I make mistakes that I learn from! Cause I'm young! Yeah I'm young!"

And of course he grinned and started recording it for later blackmail use! This would so ruin Hot Rod's image if somebot else saw it! The song combined with dancing the robot monkey was by far the most emasulating combination that he had ever witnessed.

"Are-are you recording this Sides?" Sunny sputtered.

"Yes." He stated simply. After recording Hot Rod for a few moments he turned to Lily and started recording her dancing and singing. By now she had switched to another song and was twirling the cassette around jovially.

"Feels like the weight of the world. Like God in heaven gave me a turn. Don't cling to me, I swear I can't fix you. Still in the dark, can you fix me?" Now this song fit her voice much better, not the dance so much. No not the dance at all. "Freefall, freefall, all through life. If you love me, then let go of me. I won't be held down by who I used to be. She's nothing to me."

"Who kne' baby girl coul' sing lik' dat?" Jazz mused quietly.

They sure didn't and they were bonded to her. Then again she never sang to them as a hybrid, and she certainly didn't do anything more than the occasional sparkling song as a bot.

"Feels like the weight of the world, like all my screaming has gone unheard. And oh, I know you don't believe in me. Safe in the dark, how can you see?"

The only thing that made this whole thing weird was that they were all still dancing the robot monkey. And the only thing that ended that was an accidental bump from Flareup that sent Bluestreak's half conscious form tumbling, in turn taking Hot Rod down because he was holding the gunner up. So both of them went down, and Flareup for some reason decided to jump into the jumbled mass of limbs. That left only Lily and Rosie upright.

The two femmes shared a look before Lily turned in their direction and pointed at the heap of metal with quivering mouth components. "They fell." She sniffled sadly.

"Yeah we saw that."

"Sides! Flareup is making it with Hot Rod!" Lily protested loudly.

He raised an optic ridge at her in response and peered around the table at the downed mechs and femme. And sure enough Flareup had her plating off and was now trying to, well was now making out with Hot Rod. On top of a now unconscious Bluestreak.

"Hey how come she gets to be in her protoform when I'm hot!?"

His helm snapped over just in time to see Lily drop her armor with a loud click. He nearly fritzed when her lithe yet endowed protoform was revealed to his optics, but a cough from Ironhide reminded him that other mechs and bots were in the room. "Lily put your armor back on right now!"

"NO! YOU TWO GOT NAKED IN THE MED BAY WHEN I HAD TO DO YOUR EXAMS! SO I GET TO BE NAKED NOW!"

He tried...he really tried! But he just could not keep his optics on her face plates! And he was trying really hard not to look below that point and it just happened!

Lust and love engulfed both his frame and spark as his optics drifted down over the subtle perfect curves in her frame. From her chassis to her hips, down to her thighs and legs. He felt his interface rod perk up in response.

The only thing that stopped him from jumping her now was the memory of how she had reacted to their kisses in the med bay. He did not want to scare her no matter what happened. No matter how much he wanted her. Besides she was severely overcharged now so it was immoral to take her.

They wanted her to remember their first time. That was why he did not throw himself at her like he wanted to. It was also the reason that he simply picked her armor up and held it out for her. "Sweetspark please put your armor on before somebot sees you."

"Who's gonna see me in here? Pffffft!" She plopped down on the couch. Still in her protoform. "Rosie's naked too!"

"No she's not. She has her armor on sweets."

"But she could be naked!" Lily protested. "If she wanted to she could drop her armor and streak around base too! Like this!" With that she jumped up off the couch and bolted for the door to the rec room which opened before she reached it revealing her creator. "HI OPI! I'M NAKED!" She cheered as she rushed out the door passed Ratchet's stunned face.

Deadly silence rang out throughout the room immediately following. One that was broken when Ratchet gritted his denta and hissed. "Who the slag got her so overcharged? And who the pit is going to assist me in tracking her down?"

That was what snapped them all out of their shock. SHE WAS RUNNING AROUND THE BASE NAKED! NAKED WHEN OTHER MECHS COULD SEE HER!

Before his processor even contemplated what he was doing he was running out the door. And not just him but Sunny, Jazz, and Ratchet too.

All they had to do was follow the string of gaping humans and bots to find her. And when they did find her she was huddled down against a wall while Blaster held out his servo for Rosanna, whom Lily was obviously refusing to hand over.

"Lilydancer!" Ratchet exclaimed as they drew closer to her and he knelt down beside her with her armor in hand. "Put your armor back on right this astrosecond!"

Lily whined and shook her purple helm back and forth. "No! Blaster's trying to take Rosie away from me!"

"She's his cassette! No she's his sparkling! Give her back to him!" Ratchet ordered her while he attempted to wrestle her armor onto her. So far with no results whatsoever.

"Nooooo can I keep her please Blaster?"

"Sorry baybay! But ah need mah Rosie back. Can ah 'ave her?" Blaster asked softly.

"But! But! She's pink and I don't like pink! But I like her! She can be my friend now!" Lily sniffled before crossing her arms across her chassis and blocking her hold more from view. "You can't have her! She's going to replace Monkeybread who I accidentally killed in my game!"

Amusement and irritation coursed through the bond that he shared with Sunny. **'This may be the most fun I have ever had while overcharged.'** Sunny admitted quietly. **'Though having my sparkmate naked and tearing through the base I could do without.'**

**'Agreed'** With that said he bent down to assist Ratchet in trying to wrestle her armor back on. "Sweetspark please put your armor back on. And let Rosie go back to Blaster." He was interrupted when she swung her leg out and smacked him in the face plates with it sending pain lancing through his helm. Slag that hurt! But he was able to get his servos wrapped around her leg so that he could shove her leg armor back on.

"NOOOO ARMOR! TOO HOT!" She squealed and batted at him.

"Sunny come over here and hold her down please?" He grunted when she yanked on his audio horn. Ouch that slagging hurt!

Sunny came around and pushed himself between the wall and her back struts, carefully avoiding harming her wings, so that he could pin her arms to her sides. "Baby calm down."

All she did was whine in response. "Hoooooot! Wanna be naked!"

While the three of them wrestled her armor back onto her Jazz came forward and pried at her hold in an attempt to get Rosie out. He managed to get it open and pull Rosie out relatively quickly depositing her in Blaster's servo.

Lily let out a loud wail, pain and agony suddenly racing through every part of her bond with them. An assortment of images flashed through his helm. Energon. Screams. A sparkling's cries. Feelings of desolation, loss, grief, horror, agony. So much agony and pain.

So much that he faltered in snapping her port covering on nearly buckling under the sheer intensity of the memory. The vividness of it made his processor scream in agony, his spark giving a pained lurch in his chassis. They were evoking the same feelings that had been forced on her when she was a hybrid losing her sparklings to the cons. They were hurting her just the same way!

Horror slammed into him, from several different sources. But all he could see and feel was her screaming as the memory assaulted her continuously in a horrible memory loop. It just kept replaying over and over again growing in intensity each time. And her spark was growing increasingly distressed from it.

**'Ratchet do something!'**He shouted over the comms as he sent comforting feelings through their bond to her.

Sunny was doing the same as he purred to her to alleviate her distress. None of it seemed to be working however. A memory loop was almost impossible to come out of on your own.

The sheer intensity of it, the brightness of the energon dripping from the wounds in her vision horrified him. It was like he was being sucked into it with her! He could feel the pain in his battered frame, and he could see and hear the small sparkling wailing from where it was laying covered in a false human skin on a table not too far away.

Anguish lanced through every part of him when the large burnt orange colored mech with dark red optics looming over the sparkling. A dark malicious smile pulling at his mouth components hinting at his sick and twisted nature.

Horror and fear not his own buffeted him, the shrill scream making his audio receptors ring. "Ratchet it's a memory loop! Put her into stasis!" He roared, entire frame stumbling under the onslaught of memories.

There was a flash of understanding through the bond that they shared with Ratchet. Not even half a klik later the screaming stopped and the bond went silent with forced stasis.

The only thing that stopped him from toppling over was the wall which he braced himself against. He vented hard intakes working to expel the heat from his overheated frame. Slowly he turned his helm in her direction seeing her laid completely limp against Sunny's heaving chassis with energon tracks spilling down her cheeks.

And all he could think was...

What had he done to her? When he chose to change her...what had it done to her?

And in response to that, to the guilt and pain... He wrapped himself around her in body and spark, to keep the nightmares and pain at bay. Because there was no going back now. Her fate was sealed. She was what she was and that would never change.

All they could do was be there for her. To comfort and combat the pain as it came.

Until the day that she truly remembered who she used to be. And hopefully she could come to terms with the memories again as she had done before.

At least that was what he hoped for. With all of his spark.

He hoped only for that. For her to find peace.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! I added some new choices to the poll so please vote! I am actually partial to Blaster for a future fic, but I will leave the choice to you. Even if you don't review go to my profile and vote on a future fic choice! Until next time!<p> 


	43. Chapter 43

The vote is still going guys! I need a beta to completely edit Sideswipe and Sunstreaker meet their match! That story has too many editing errors so I haven't been working on it. If someone wants to completely edit it let me know! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Some rather descriptive mature content!

* * *

><p>The first thing that she felt upon coming to was a horrible processor ache the likes of which she had never felt before. The second thing that she felt was three spark signatures hovering near her berth. What the slag had happened that had made them all so worried?<p>

All she could remember was drinking high grade and riding a horse into a rock on Skyrim. Oh and pranking the twins! She remembered doing that! But then after the drinking started she didn't really remember anything at all. Most of it was blurs of color and sounds.

But at one point she remembered feeling loss and pain. Over what she could not remember right this astrosecond. Like always the memories just would not come when she called them. To say that she was frustrated with this mess was an understatement.

Since she was a sparkling she had been having these visions that she could not remember. All that she could remember following them was that she had seen something. But she could never recall what it was, she could only ever recall the feelings associated with it. The fear and pain.

Were...were they really memories of her? But wouldn't she recall them consciously if they were? She would right? Right...?

Her helm was absolutely throbbing at this point making her have to tilt herself to the side to try and relieve the pain. The movement only sent more pain shooting straight through her frame making her moan softly in pain. Oh Primus the pain in her helm was fragging killing her!

The noise drew her intended mates to her side first. A large servo gently touched her helm relieving the pain somewhat with both the touch and their bond. Sunny sent feelings of love and reassurance into her to soothe the turmoil that was plaguing her spark.

A pain that came from not remembering. From only knowing that you were supposed to. And yet somehow she had the feeling that whatever had happened was so bad that she didn't really want to know. Whatever the case she forced her optics to online, wincing at the sharp piercing light that immediately made the throbbing worse.

A soft whimper escaped her vocaliser as she shielded her optics with her servo. "What the slag happened?"

A third presence made itself at home on the other side of her berth. Her opiluck. He was worried and concerned about her, that much she could clearly tell from sense and from the bond. "Sweetling you drank a substantial amount of high grade last night. You are quite hung over."

"Hung over? The slag? How much did I drink?" With a soft groan she turned onto her side and curled into a small ball. She grabbed her helm in her servos and rubbed circles onto it to relieve the horrid pressure. All she wanted was to know what was tormenting her! That even took precedence over her being hung over. "What the slag was in my processor last night? I've seen memory loops from spending time with Blue and that was definitely a memory loop."

Silence. Even the bonds that she shared with each of them went completely silent.

All she wanted was to know! Just so that she understood why this was all happening to her! Why couldn't they understand that? If they knew something they should just tell her! What weren't they telling her? What were they keeping from her?

"Baby..." Sunny spoke up hesitantly after several long moments. His servo found its way to her shoulder to gently caress it. "Everything is going to be ok. No matter what happens we'll always be here. Nothing is ever going to change that. I promise."

"We promise." Sides piped up seriously. He gently kissed her helm as the bond swelled with love and assurances. "We'll always be here even when you don't want us to be."

A strong wave of adoration and determination coursed into her spark. _**:I will be here as well.:**_

These three always had been right there beside her, helping her learn to crawl, and walk, and run, and live like a real Autobot. She had no doubt in her processor or spark that they meant it with everything in them. That knowledge comforted her uncertainties. At least for now.

She also had no doubt that the visions would be back. And she had no doubt that she would suffer when they came. She always did. The fear and pain had haunted her vid files ever since she was a sparkling, along with the flashes of colors and screams.

What if she actually remembered why?

* * *

><p>Her opi made her stay in the med bay for a few hours while he administered pain suppressant for her helm ache and refueled her. The energon helped to make her helm ache lessen and that made her grateful. And while this was happening the twins were never far away from her.<p>

They had even helped her to refuel since her frame had endured quite a shock from the memory loop, resulting in her systems being off kilter. When she had dropped her energon cube and spilled it all over herself Sides had went to get her another one, while Sunny propped her up so that Sides could help her drink the new cube.

She'd rather have something else honestly. Like candy or pancakes that she could convert...over the slag that opi had made her drink. Sides had told her that before Jacky had come the synthesized energon they had been forced to drink was completely disgusting. Luckily that was not the case anymore since Jacky had redone the recipe making the energon sweet instead of bitter. But this energon was nasty!

Opi said that it was filled with special additives to aid her internal systems. With what she had no idea. Probably her internal stabilizers which were still off somewhat. Whatever the reason it tasted like complete slag.

After that she had fallen into a light recharge while her mechs watched over her. No vid files plagued her, at least not that she remembered. Not that she would actually remember the vid files themselves, only the feelings associated with them. The point is; she would remember that she had seen something if she had, but she would not remember what it was.

Her recharge had been interrupted by the feeling of her being moved. When she onlined her optics she was no longer in the med bay, she was being carried into Sides' and Sunny's room by the latter. Slag with how much time she spent in here she may as well just move in.

"You could." Sunny agreed quietly. "Primus knows that we would never deny that request." He sat her on the couch comfortably before plopping down beside her.

Sides sat down on her other side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders at the same time that Sunny did. For once her red mech was not in a joking mood, no he was looking at her completely serious. "Are you feeling ok? Do you want to recharge for a bit?"

"No I'm good." She could never be anything but good when she was cushioned between the two of them this comfortably. It just made her feel safe, loved, and protected. Like even the unknown couldn't hurt her anymore. At least for right now.

With a soft contented coo she curled up into his side and cuddled into him. She felt him lean his helm onto her's at the same time that she felt Sunny scoot up against her back. Always mindful of her door wings when he wrapped himself around her. Their warmth seeped into her.

A disgruntled growl had her turning her helm in Aednat's direction. Oh she needed to be let out! "Hold on a sec!" She patted the twins helms before hopping up and bounding over to release Aednat from her cage. She scooped her cybercat friend up and cuddled her tight. For some reason some kind of urge came over her making her click down at her softly.

Aednat only purred in obvious happiness from the attention.

She plopped back down between her intendeds and sat Aednat down on her lap. "No tearing anything up."

Aednat only looked up at her and mewed quietly.

She only narrowed her optics at Aednat sternly and pointed over to a shredded canvas. Apparently one that Sunny had not yet seen because when he followed her digit his jaw dropped. "WHAT THE SLAG? MY PAINTING!" He jumped to his pedes and yanked the ruined canvas up from the floor. "NO! I WAS WORKING ON THIS FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!"

Whoops...bad Aednat! She tugged her little one up to her face and smacked her olfactory passage sternly. "Bad Aednat! You know better! Bad girl!"

She let out a startled squeak when Sunny suddenly appeared right in front of her face with his servo held out for Aednat. On reflex she only clutched her Aednat tighter and shook her helm no. "No Sunny. Aednat's just a cyberkitty! She doesn't know any better!"

Sunny growled low in his chassis and reached for her again.

Before she could stop herself a menacing growl escaped from her vocaliser as she wrapped herself around Aednat protectively. She didn't know why but something in her was telling her to protect her cybercat like her life depended on it. It confused her but she couldn't not do it.

Sunny stopped short looking startled. "Baby?"

"Sweetspark?"

It was at that point that she realized she was growling continuously. Not only that, her door wings were flared warningly, and her wires were crackling dangerously. She was doing all of this without even realizing it! What the slag was wrong with her?

She deactivated her wires and forced herself to tuck her wings down against her back. Her grip on Aednat loosened somewhat, but she didn't drop her. She ducked her helm in embarrassment and frustration not understanding why she had done those things. All she knew was that she had felt that Aednat had been threatened and her systems reacted. But she had almost attacked her intended sparkmate! Over her cybercat!

"Sorry Sunny." It came out as as a soft barely there whisper. Her spark was conflicted by these events. Sunny had scolded Aednat for doing things before and she had never reacted like this! He had never hurt Aednat so why was she acting like he was going to? And better yet why were they not angry at her? Or frustrated? It seemed like they were radiating understanding, and in Sunny's case frustration.

"It's ok baby." Sunny said quietly as he moved off to clean up the mess that Aednat had made.

She felt distinctly bad about how she had acted...for treating him like he was going to hurt her. For a moment she clutched Aednat tighter before handing her over to Sides. "Take her to refuel please."

Sides seemed to understand what she wanted to do because he took Aednat without complaint. "I'll be back in a few sweetspark." He grinned and swept her mouth components up in a brief and heated kiss before separating from her and leaping to his pedes. In a flash he was gone, only the door sliding shut in the otherwise silent room telling that he had ever been there.

For a moment she just sat there staring at Sunny's back while he cleaned up the canvas, feeling so much guilt in her spark for how she had treated him. She got up from the couch and crossed the room so that she could lean over and press herself to his back making him still instantly.

"Baby?" His voice was soft and overly curious.

She slowly uncurled herself from his back and knelt down in front of him so that she could take his cheek plates in her servos. Usually they initiated intimate contact since her processor and frame were virginal. Thus she was always uncertain of herself on the rare times that she did initiate something. But right now she needed to convey herself somehow, in some way other than the bond. She really and truly wanted him to know how sorry she was.

That was why she met his optics and did not hesitate to kiss him. She kept it soft at first by just pressing their components together. But all that flew out the window when he opened his mouth and slid his glossa against her low lip component. She opened herself up to him as she leaned back and took them to the floor so that he was laying draped over her. Some fear flashed through her spark, but she knew that Sunny would never hurt her.

**{Never.}** He agreed with a pleased rumble when his glossa slid into her oral cavity and brushed against her's.

She panted softly as her neural network started to burn pleasantly starting at her chassis and abdomen and working it's way out. It made her servos tingle even! A soft moan fell from her vocaliser when he shifted against her inadvertently brushing his interface area against her port.

Sunny seemed to freeze when he realized what he had done. And for that matter so did she. She felt fear when he touched her port even though she knew he hadn't meant to. He immediately pulled himself off of her and settled down beside her.

His regret and anger washed over her briefly before he dulled the bond down. He curled himself around her smaller frame protectively. "I'm sorry baby. I don't mean to keep scaring you..." He sighed and kissed her neck softly. "Just know that I would never ever force you. When you are ready we will join, not a moment sooner."

She turned towards him and curled into his chassis...hating herself for being so pathetic that she couldn't even... Now she was sure that he was on a high charge, one that she had put him in. And he was going to have to deal with it because she was too scared to satisfy him with her frame.

"Don't be like that baby. You're a virgin. All virgin femmes are scared their first time."

Yeah but it wasn't her first time doing that! She was only making out with him and she froze up and freaked out. All she wanted was for the fear and pain to stop when she was with him, either of them like this. She knew that they wouldn't hurt her, but it was like some instinctive part of her expected pain to come from their attentions. When she knew full well that only pleasure would come if she would just let them. Why did she have to be so conflicted?

"I'm not mad baby. I've ridden out high charges without being satisfied before. No big deal."

That only made her feel worse. She curled into him and whimpered pitifully.

Before Sunny could say anything the door opened signalling that Sides had returned. "Sunny you made her upset!" Sides admonished his twin sternly.

"I did not! She got scared when we were making out! So I stopped and now she's mad at herself for being scared!" Sunny argued.

There was a soft groan from Sides before another body was enveloping her from behind. "Sweetspark listen to me; It is ok to be scared of interfacing. It's ok to feel uncertainty and hesitance. Everybot does until they actually know what to expect! Even I was like that before my first time."

He was lying to her! She knew that both of them were not a bumbling mass of nerves before they interfaced for the first time. "No you weren't."

There was silence for a moment. "I wasn't scared that it would hurt like you are sweetspark." Sides kissed the back of her neck gently. "But I was scared that I would not perform well enough to satisfy my partner. Imagine that for a moment... A young mech's fear that he's going to immediately overload upon penetration, thus completely disappointing his interface partner. It was mortifying!"

There was a sharp clanging noise followed by Sunny snorting. "If I recall correctly you did overload immediately upon penetration! Luckily for you the femme was willing to try again after you embarrassed yourself."

"Sunny you aren't supposed to tell her that!" Sides groaned sending embarrassment through the bond.

Their tactics were effective though because she was now feeling rather amused. She giggled and turned her helm to look at Sides with an optic ridge raised. "You did that?"

Sides pouted. "Yeah but Sunny didn't even- OW!" Sides yelped when Sunny smacked him upside the helm again. "The frag was that for?"

"DON'T YOU EVEN DARE!" Sunny growled out menacingly.

"Oh? What's wrong Sunny? Don't want Lily to know that you overloaded as soon as that femme touched your rod? At least I made it to penetration!"

Sunny growled when she laughed at Sides' comment. "Baby that's not true!"

"Yes it is. Luckily for you she was willing to give you another shot." Sides teased by repeating the words that Sunny had just said to him. All with that huge shit eating grin on his face.

"Yeah but I fragged her good after that!" A faint dusting of energon was coating Sunny's cheek ridges. He was obviously trying his best to be intimidating with Sides, but he was also failing badly.

In an attempt to break up the tension she rolled onto her back and pursed her mouth components playfully. "Well I bet I'll do something that embarrassing my first time too. I'll probably trip onto the berth, don't ask me how that's even possible because I have done it before." At their raised optic ridges she blushed. "Uhhh wires caught under my knee and I face palmed into the berth in my room."

Sides laughed and playfully poked her nasal ridge. "Aww Lily tripped onto the berth! That is embarrassing... almost as much as Sunny- OWWWWW!" Another flash of gold struck Sides' helm. Hard. It even left a good sized dent there afterwards.

"Anyways like I was saying," she laughed quietly at Sides' pouting face. "I'll probably trip onto the berth. And then I'll probably faint from embarrassment as soon as I strip my armor off."

"No you won't." Sunny smirked at her. "We'll pounce on you before that happens. You'll feel so good that you won't be able to go into recharge." He practically purred at her.

She turned to Sides and whimpered. "Sides save me!" Then she buried herself into his chassis and batted at Sunny's servos when they reached for her. "No! He's going to annihilate me!" She whimpered in false fear. Being completely honest his words had not scared her in the least. Quite the opposite really. Of course they didn't know that because she dulled the bond down.

"Sunny you're scaring her! At this rate we'll never get to mate with her because of your stupid comments!"

This time Sunny yelped in pain when Sides hit him upside the helm. "Ow! What the frag Sides? I was just- well I wasn't joking because I was being serious! But still you don't have to hit me you stupid slagger!" Sunny grabbed her and yanked her back into him with a dangerous growl. "Besides! She has to know that we're going to make it feel great for her! I plan on making it so that she can't walk the next day!"

"Whoa Sunny calm down! Scared virgin you got there."

"Yeah scared little virgin down here whose case you are not helping with!" She played along with Sides after she sent a playful nudge over the bond. Lifting her helm up at Sunny she pouted and sniffled dramatically. "I won't be able to walk?"

Sunny seemed to falter. "Wha-no! Well yes! But in the good way baby! In the good way!"

"There's a good way to not be able to walk?" She sniffled and wiped at her optics to play the act up. There was way too much fun to be had here...way too much! Poor Sunny really should learn to watch what he said! Right? Right. "Is it going to hurt really bad?"

"No! Yes... it's going to hurt baby." Sunny smacked his helm and groaned. "Interfacing for the first time is going to hurt baby but Sides and I will make it all better afterwards. You might be sore for the next few days though from having your seal broken."

"Really?" Of course she knew all this but Sunny looked so mortified having to explain it to her! Behind her she felt Sides shaking with the strain of holding his laughter in. His chassis brushed her external nodes on her door wings making her gasp as fire hot pleasure raced through her. Her entire frame tensed, all teasing aside it felt really good. Better than good.

Without her conscious knowledge she lifted her wings and dragged them down his chassis again resulting in the same pleasure from before. She whimpered and contemplated tucking them in if only to save herself from the fear that would probably envelop her again. But before she could liquid heat enveloped the top tip of her left wing. She moaned. Loud when Sides raked his denta across the nodes.

Heat shot straight through her wings into her spark chamber creating a slight pressure. She moaned again when his glossa flicked over her sensitive nodes. She was so gone after that first touch that she didn't even feel it when she was rolled onto her stomach. The only thing that could snap her out of her daze was a second mouth engulfing her left wing, while Sides switched to her right since it was closest to him.

Her entire frame clenched as her spark started swelling with an overload. She whimpered when Sunny bit down on the tip and twisted his glossa over the small love bite while growling. Sides attacked her other wing with hard suckles while he played with her lower wing with his servo. Sunny joined in with doing that when he realized that Sides was doing it.

They sucked, tweaked, kneaded, and bit her wings. And the whole time she lay there moaning and squirming from the building pressure that the pulses of heat were serving to intensify. She lifted her helm and moaned seeking out one of them. Sides responded and replaced his mouth components with his servo so that he could kiss her.

She felt him force his way into her oral cavity and responded in kind by rolling her glossa against his. He seemed to take immense pleasure in devouring her small cries, rumbling every time she whimpered or moaned.

She felt Sunny slide one of his servos down to cup her aft making her stiffen slightly. A brief flash of nervousness attempted to overcome her but she forced herself not to react to it. Sunny would not hurt her. She trusted him.

He didn't move his servo any closer to her port covering anyways like she thought that he might. Not that it really mattered with the way they were wreaking havoc on her sensitive wing nodes. The pressure in her spark was growing almost painful, in turn making her press herself even harder into the kiss she shared with Sides.

She was just hanging precariously over the edge, unable to fall over and experience that processor blowing pleasure that she so needed. Her entire frame was alight with heat and electricity making her feel better than she could ever remember feeling, and yet she could not fall into oblivion. Something was holding her back.

Frustration welled up inside of her making her want to beat her servos against something! Anything! This was all new to her seeing as how she had never felt the need to overload before. It hurt! Oh how it hurt in a very good way! **{Please!}** She threw all restraint to the wind and actually begged! The sensations were just too much for her to handle!

**{Please what baby? Tell us.}**

She whined in frustration and pushed all that she was feeling, the lust, the need, the frustration at him.** {Please!}**

**{Do you trust us?}** Sides practically purred over the bond.

**{Yes! Just make it stop please!}** She cried out into his mouth when Sunny delivered a sharp bite to her wing. Her frame jerked sending interface panel screeching over the hard floor tearing paint off.

She suddenly found herself on her back dazed and confused, with Sides propped up on his elbows beside her. He attacked her mouth components again with heated kisses as he used his free servo to tweak her wings. His glossa slid into her oral cavity again pressing itself against her's.

Something slid against her port covering making her jump and squeal in shock and fear. "Relax baby. We won't hurt you." Sunny murmured quietly as he tapped at her covering again. "I won't do anything without asking you first Red." He gently dragged his digits down over her covered port. "If you want to open it for me that is."

He left her the choice. They weren't pressuring her for something that she wasn't ready for. It was all up to her to continue this, or to let it continue. It eased her fears of being forced somewhat. A fear that she still did not really understand.

The virginal fear was still there however. As much as she prided herself on being brave...she was afraid of exposing herself to them.

Sides separated from her mouth and whispered in her audio receptor breathily. "Don't be. If you want to stop we'll stop. No questions. No arguments. We will stop." He kissed his way down to her neck cables and gently mouthed at one making her moan.

She looked down at Sunny and dropped her lower armor hesitantly. The fear was still there, but they had promised her. And these two never lied to her.

"What do you want me to do Red? I'm at your disposal." Sunny smirked his seductive yet dangerous smirk at her. And oh the things that it was doing to her tightly strung frame.

"Umm what do you...like to do?" She panted out heavily. Like she knew what to ask him for! This was her first time ever being in this situation where something more than kissing was going to happen! She knew that this was his way of giving her the choice but she was lost.

"Well I like to use my glossa on the ports of beautiful femmes. Or I can use my digits. It's your choice."

A furious blush crept over her cheek plates at the mental image of him with his face buried in her... The pressure in her spark suddenly increased to the point that it actually was painful. The idea definitely appealed to her state of processor right now.

She placed one servo on his helm and directed him down to her port which was covered in lavender colored lubricant. His glossa slid out and gently licked it off of her thighs making her whimper and tug at his helm to get it to go where she wanted it. She sat up so that she could see what he was doing, making Sides move around behind her to prop her up so that he could continue his ministrations as well.

Every move he made was deliberate and slow as he licked his way up both thighs collecting all the lubricant before moving onto her external node. Once he reached it he paused and looked up at her. "If it gets too bad just tell me and I'll stop." He promised astroseconds prior to him sliding his glossa over her node.

Pleasure so sharp shot through her that she cried out as her helm fell back against Sides' chassis with a loud clang. It felt like her spark wanted to explode and it was in no way painful! Her port clenched in response as more lubricant gushed out. Sunny's glossa was immediately at her opening swirling around it to collect every drop making her moan loudly and buck her hips. It slid into her opening making her stiffen slightly at the intrusion. He must have sensed it because he withdrew and went back to licking her external node and opening.

She relaxed again, as much as she could. Soft moans kept falling from her vocaliser from the dual sensations of having attentions bestowed upon her wings and port. The sensations kept growing stronger and stronger with each caress or lick, resulting in the pressure in both her spark and port pulling even tighter.

They were in her spark feeling what she was feeling. Moaning, growling, feeling the pleasure with her.

All it took for her was one more sharp bite to her wing for her to cry out as her overload washed through her. She wildly bucked her hips as her entire frame was overcome with a rising wave of sheer blinding pleasure that made her optics flash a bright white. Every node ending was on fire making her feel like she was being ripped apart node by node only it felt so fragging amazing that she almost fell into stasis from it.

It felt like every stabilizer in her frame went out making her slump against Sides in exhaustion. She didn't even have the strength to twitch as Sunny licked up every drop of lubricant he could find, nor did she move when Sides placed her down so that he could assist his twin in cleaning her of the bright purple liquid.

Both worked their glossas to gather every drop, purring at the taste. Their gazes were on her while they worked, locked on her panting form. For some reason she was overcome with a sudden swell of absolute adoration for them. They had done all of that for her without expecting a thing in return and that meant a lot to her. Because she honestly didn't know if she was ready for more. This experience, as pleasurable as it had been was still nerve-wracking for her.

Maybe if they worked at it things would get better? She was pretty sure that if anybot else on base had even touched her in the same manner she would have freaked completely. It really did show how much she trusted these two to let them touch her, seeing as how she was apparently more skittish than most virgins.

Regardless of why or how they had given her first overload to her and were now treating her like a queen afterwards. Sunny even snapped her plating back on after they were finished cleaning her solidifying that they were completely serious about their promise.

When they both crawled back up over her she realized quite suddenly that their interface coverings were covered with transfluid. Sides chuckled at her startled gaze and used a polish rag to clean himself. "The bond allows us to share pleasure." He stated simply.

They cleaned themselves off quickly and efficiently before moving her back to their couch and sitting on each side of her.

Overloading really worked wonders on the frame, she had to admit as she curled into Sunny's side. Earlier she had a helmache and she was sore from the high grade, and not only that but she was stressed and sad about whatever she had seen. Now she was feeling worlds better. Her spark felt better.

They enveloped her smaller frame between the two of them and cuddled her close. Here between them like this... she really did feel safe and happy. Enough that she could forget about the uncertainty.

At least for a while.

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

When he came out of recharge the next morning he was met with the sight of his sparkmate laying curled up on top of his twin's chassis comfortably. With a soft groan he shifted across the berth towards them and pulled her over to drape across his chassis. For some reason he just had the urge to cuddle her.

She moaned something and shifted onlining her optics so that she could look up at him. "Sunny?" Her optics drifted over to Sides briefly. With a soft moan she planted her face plates into his chassis tiredly. "Mmmm too early."

Her words prompted him to check his chronometer, which informed him that it was seven AM. Early. He was totally with her on that part, but once he was awake he had a hard time going back into recharge. Today was already proving to be one of those days as well. How Sides could continue recharging obviously was beyond him.

"Sunny too early." Red repeated quietly as she snuggled further into him. Her large door wings flopped down over her back to brush against the sides of his chassis, the heat from them seeping into him. "Why did you wake me up?"

"Sorry baby." He gently rubbed her wings eliciting a soft cooing sound from her. "I wanted to steal you from Sides but I didn't mean to wake you." After last night she needed her recharge that was for sure. His glossa was still covered in her sweet taste. A taste that he would forever crave.

After a few moments she gave up on trying to go back into recharge with an irritated growl. She propped herself up on her elbows so that she was face level with him and pouted. "Sunny I was tired! Next time don't move me when I'm recharging!"

"But if I do then I can do this without Sides knowing!" With that he grabbed her face and pulled it to his so that he could kiss her. He stifled the startled sound that she made and pressed several chaste kisses to her small mouth components. "Sides...can't...be...his...annoying...self...and...steal...you...from...me!" He muttered in between their contact.

Red giggled at him. "Awww! Poor...Sunny!" She grinned against his mouth.

A disgruntled pouting feeling came through the bond from Sides an astrosecond before he onlined his optics and pouted at them. "Hey! How come I wasn't invited to this party? I'm your loverboy too!" Sides protested mournfully.

Red separated from him and pulled Sides to her so that she could kiss him. "There! Better?" She grinned and nuzzled her nasal ridge against Sides.

Sides grinned back and returned her affections. "Of course I'm better sweetspark. See Sunny? She loves me more than you!"

He scowled and smacked his twin's helm roughly. "Shut the frag up you stupid slagger!"

Their sparkmate opened her mouth to no doubt scold him when her optics dimmed suddenly. She frowned and removed herself from his chassis quickly as she answered her comm link. All that they could discern was a faint muttering whisper. After a moment her optics brightened before she hopped off the berth.

He sat up. "Where are you going baby?"

She stopped just in front of the door and twitched her door wings nervously. "Well that was Uncle Jazz...I have my first mission today."

His processor seemed to freeze as soon as those words came out of her mouth. Mission? They were sending her out into the field? For what? Everything in him balked back from the very notion. Call him overprotective but she was their other half! "What mission? I didn't hear about any mission."

She turned to him briefly. "Me either, but apparently there has been some con activity around the area of Salt Lake City. Optimus wants me to go and scout the area out with my panels. I don't know all the details yet."

In a flash he was beside her. "We're coming with you!"

"I agree with Sunny! Anything can happen out there especially on your first assignment!" Sides rolled up on her other side and took her arm in his.

Before they could even walk out the door he received a comm link. With a growl he threw it open and unloaded on whoever it was. **'Who the slag had the idea to send our sparkmate out on a mission? What if the cons try and take her?!'**

There was a brief pause before a stern voice came back through. **'Sunstreaker she is an Autobot.'** Optimus replied quietly. **'She must gain experience somehow. At least it will not be alone, she will have you two, Jazz, and Ironhide. Come to the mission hall for your debriefing.'** With that the link was cut.

The fact that he got to go only made him feel a little better. He wasn't going to leave her side until they were back on base! That was a promise! "Come on baby. Optimus wants us to go to the briefing as well since we're going with you."

Together the three of them left the room and made their way to the briefing hall. He led Red inside the room where Optimus was waiting with Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet and stopped beside the CMO.

"Con activity has been picked up in Salt Lake City," Optimus looked the gathered bots over carefully gaze lingering on Lilydancer the most. "Your mission is to scout the area out and intercept any con patrols you come into contact with. Find out why they are there, and drive them out. Lilydancer is the acting medic on this assignment. I do not want her left unattended, nor do I want her to engage in combat if it can be avoided. One of you will stay with her at all times while she scouts the area out with her sensory panels."

Red bristled in irritation but did not comment on it.

"Do all of you understand your assignments?"

"Yes Prime." They all responded simultaneously.

"Good. You leave at noon. Rest up and prepare yourselves until then."

He took that as a dismissal and tugged Red from the room. "Don't pout Red. You're a rookie Autobot. Of course Optimus would want to make sure that a more experienced bot is watching out for you."

The pout never left her face. "I don't need a sparklingsitter." She protested.

"Don't think of it as a sparklingsitter!" Sides piped in cheerfully. "Think of it as the Autobots protecting their own interests!"

"So a sparklingsitter." Red deadpanned. "I should go to the med bay and gather the materials I need for the assignment. Meet me back at your room in a few?"

"We have everything that we need baby. Do you want us to come with you?"

"If you want to." She shrugged and led them towards the med bay.

Ratchet caught up to them on the way and fell into step beside them. "I hope you're prepared for your first mission sweetling."

"I am."

Ratchet turned towards her as they stopped outside the med bay doors. "Don't do anything foolish out there. I would not want to have to bury my sparkling due to her own need to prove herself. That recognition will come over time regardless." With that he gestured them into the med bay and over to a berth that First Aid was laying supplies out on. "This will have everything you will need in case something happens. When Optimus ran this mission by me earlier this morning I started preparing a medical kit for you to use."

A welder, welding metal, disinfectant salves, medical adhesives, clamps, saws, and many other items lay spread out on the berth. Red wordlessly took all of them and subspaced each item quickly.

Ratchet placed a servo on her shoulder and turned her towards him. "Be safe. Listen to your superior officers, and do not take any unnecessary risks. Do this for your opiluck my spark. And come back to me safe and sound."

"I will." Red murmured almost too low to be heard. She embraced Ratchet briefly before pulling back. "You just don't wrench anybot into stasis while I'm gone ok?"

Ratchet scowled at her. "No promises. But you don't hesitate to wrench a con if it comes down to it."

He frowned at the playful banter remembering how much it hurt when she belted him with a wrench. Damn Ratchet must have a special throwing technique that he had taught to her. Cause slag it hurt! "Come on baby. Let's all go and relax for the next few hours before the mission." He held out his servo for her to take.

"See you when I get back Opi. Love you!" Red skipped over to him and slid her servo into his. He met Ratchet's optics while she wasn't looking and nodded once.

We'll take good care of her.

We'll keep her safe.

And they would too. No matter what the cost she would return to the base safe and sound. Any cons would regret even trying to put their filthy servos on her.

That he promised with everything in him.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Sorry for the delay but my muse was being a jerk! Oh and only one review for the last chapter? Meh you guys are so mean! Lol just messing! Oh and please check the vote in my profile page and vote!<p> 


	44. Chapter 44

So here's Lily's first mission! I'm super excited and nervous about writing it! Hopefully I get the fighting scenes written right! Anyways check out the poll in my profile! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>She could feel them as soon as she turned her panels on. The cliff that they were on that overlooked the city from a distance provided a perfect stake out spot. She clearly saw their sparks dark and tainted with malice, mingling with the small electric pulses that were identifiable as humans.<p>

From here she could deduce that there were three Decepticons. All were using their holoforms to blend into the groups of humans below. What she wanted to know was why? What did they hope to accomplish by having such contact with beings that they set out to exterminate?

"There are three mechs, one is roughly ten miles west of the city center, the second is fifteen miles to the south, and the third is roughly twenty miles to the north. They have activated their holoforms and are dispersed within the human populace."

There was a small sound of irritation from Uncle Hide. "Slagging fraggers! What the slag could they be up to? Can you tap into their mental processes?"

"Yes hold on a moment please." She shifted her focus towards the closest signature and brushed her awareness over his.

Broken fragments of words and thought processes came ghosting back over her._ 'Find...human...suitable... Megatron...offline...fail. Good...breeding...subject.'_

She stiffened and flared her door wings angrily. "What?!" She whisper hissed menacingly. "I'll fragging kill that little slagger!" And she almost went to do just that when a large servo stopped her from jumping off the cliff they were perched on. A menacing growl escaped from her vocaliser as she looked at whoever had stopped her.

"You remember what Optimus said sweetspark?" Sides reminded her gently after crouching down beside her. "You are not to engage in combat unless it can't be avoided."

"But Sides! They! They! Can I at least shoot that one?! He deserves it!"

In response all she got was a handsome smirk. "They all deserve to be shot! But that's beside the point love. What exactly has your door wings all out of proportion?"

Oh right she had yet to tell them what she had discovered. "They want to use humans for some kind of breeding experiment. Right now they seem to be scouting out good candidates." She scowled and looked down over the city again feeling an immense rage simmering in her spark. For some reason she just wanted to kill them! She just wanted to go down there and show them that the Autobots WERE going to protect sentient life! They would not do what they wanted to do!

Silence met her revelation. Shocked silence. Each of her teammates seemed to have frozen physically and mentally. It didn't bother her though, they should be shocked. Cons! Those fragging cons were so disgusting that it was unreal! They still had to move if they wanted to protect the humans however.

"We should be moving to intercept them now. I said that they were scouting good choices out, but I believe they are also willing to take if it comes down to it."

That got the rest to snap out of it. "Al'ight! Le's get movin down dere! Ironhide, Sunstreaker, and ah will go on down. Sideswipe yo' stay ere wit baby girl an' protect 'er! Le's all mee' back ere in a few b'eems. Comm if ya get inta any t'ouble."

They all nodded at Jazz before separating. Ironhide went towards the western target. Jazz went south. And Sunny paused briefly to pull her into a kiss before he separated and disappeared into the trees to hit the northern target.

That left her and Sides in silence. Dreaded and awful silence. She could still hear somewhat through her bonds with Jazz and Sunny, but it was muted and dulled so that they could concentrate. She reached out for them with her spark just so that she could feel them more easily. They both responded in kind by brushing their spark energy over her's.

"Everything will be ok sweetspark. The others will all be fine." Sides reassured her quietly. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into his chassis. His helm came down to rest on her's as he settled her into his lap. "They'll all come back safe and sound. Just focus on keeping track of the spark signatures ok? Don't want any cons sneaking up on us or them."

Right definitely not. So far she was still only picking up the three signatures from earlier. She still kept alert just in case something changed. She hoped that Sides was right, she really did, because if something happened to Sunny she didn't know what she would do. No if something happened to any of them it would kill her.

It wasn't like there was anything else that she could do to help right now. She could not disobey Uncle Optimus's orders since he was Prime. But oh how she wanted to just jump up and race down there to tail Sunny and make sure that he was ok. She knew that he would be angry at her for following him, but it would be worth it if she could watch his back.

Unfortunately for her Sides was sparklingsitting her. Nobot could tell her that one of the reasons for a sitter to be appointed for her was not to keep her from following one of them. Because she knew full well that it was for that reason mainly. If a con came for her she would sense them long before they came so there was no way any of them could sneak up on her. Therefore Sides was here to make sure that she behaved.

That bothered her. But she quickly forgot about all that was irritating her when she saw several bright flashes down below signalling that the cons had returned to their alt modes. Apparently the fight was going to start now. And all she could do was watch...

It wasn't like she could see their frames move for move when they engaged each other in combat. She could sense the electromagnetic pulses in their frames even from here, and accordingly use them to predict movements. At this distance it was not quite as accurate as close quarters, but she was still pretty spot on.

She quickly got pulled into Sunny's fight with a rather large mech. She could see the flashes of energy going off as they struck at each other, or blocked, sometimes even ducking and rolling. And she was watching every single move closely. Sunny was easily holding his own, though his thought processes seemed to be trained on her more than his opponent. He wanted to come back to her.

Another bright flash went off when the enemy mech struck again. Sunny was a little too slow and took the blow to the face plates, the area lighting up with pain, but before his attacker could strike him again Sunny reacted by slamming his swords into the mech's side.

She felt the sharp blast of pain through the mech's aura as he took the blow, a ghost of fire tickling her nodes in the afflicted area. But she never took her optics or her wings off of them. She couldn't afford to in case something happened.

At least she didn't want to have to look away but...her senses forced her attention away from the battles when her sensors picked up another bot signal. She swiveled around in that direction peering over Sides' shoulder in the same direction. "Another signature. Con. Heading this way."

Sides stiffened and swept her up from the ground. "Are you sure?" He growled and smacked himself in the helm immediately upon asking that question. "Never mind! Of course you are!" He looked around for a moment before dragging her into the trees surrounding them.

They took off running in the opposite direction from the signature. But it seemed to be following them. She could even tell that it had located them by this point, it's processes told her so. It seemed pretty powerful as well so if it did catch up to them there would be a nasty confrontation between whoever it was and Sides. That was if she didn't tweak the battle a little. "Sides it's chasing us." And catching up to them fast but she was pretty sure that he knew that already from the stiff set of his shoulders.

Their bond was alight with his concerns for her safety and wellbeing. These thoughts being all that seemed to matter to him at this point. He turned to look at her over his shoulder as he slowed down and came to a stop. That's all he did for a moment, just stand and stare at her quietly with darkened optics.

"Sides we don't exactly have time to be standing here. What do you want me to do?"

His optics brightened up after another moment or so. "Sorry sweetspark, I was talking to Sunny and the others to let them know what's going on. Jazz wants you to hide while I intercept our follower." He tugged her over to a downed pile of trees and shoved her behind it, gently of course. "Stay here until I come back for you."

She received the kiss that he offered her and reciprocated it immediately whilst sending her irritation to him through the sparkbond. A stern yet playful nudge was all that she received back just before he separated from her. "Be good and wait for me until I get back."

And then he was gone before she could say anything. Just in time to meet their new arrival as well.

The loud sound of rough servos shoving trees over was the first thing that her audio receptors picked up on. Not that she needed them, she had known that he was close. She peeked through a break in the wood catching sight of Sides' back first. Her optics drifted over to the mech that made his way into the small clearing astroseconds later.

Tall and black, the Decepticon's form was broad and tall. Long fang like denta curved up around his upper mouth components, his helm her at least four horn like protrusions curving back over it. It looked to her like he had eight sets of glowing red optics. Optics that swiveled in her direction as a twisted smirk broke out across his features.

"Crankcase." Sides practically hissed the designation like acid. "One of Megatron's lapdogs. To what do we owe the displeasure?" Her intended moved more in front of her position most likely to try and block Crankcase from her. Since he knew that she was there he could just try to bypass Sides to get to her, that was what Sides was thinking.

Her face flashed across the con's processor filling her helm with fragments of his voice. It was similar to the bot that she had tapped into earlier, save for the fact that this bot was after her in particular at Megatron's request. She didn't really know how she felt about that...fearful and angry mostly.

"Megatron has need for that femme there. He sent us to retrieve her."

Us? But he was the only bot nearby that she could sense. And if there were any bots nearby she would sense them! But...the only ones near them were the bots in the city, and they were all locked in battle with her comrades.

Steeling her resolve she raised her panels and expanded her intakes to catch more vibrations, or electrical impulses. Anything that could help! There had to be something that she was missing and if she couldn't sense it with her more wide used sensory skills than she would try to sense the vibrations around them.

The sounds around her bounced off of ground, trees, and rocks, slowly painting a mental picture in her processor. She could see Sides and Crankcase facing each other, but she pushed her senses out farther than that. Each sound; from the grass blowing in the wind, to the birds chirping over head created a larger and more broad picture. She could see the trees and each individual rock nearby, even the birds sitting high atop the tree tops.

And then silence rang out behind her. No animals scurrying about, no birds chirping high up in the trees. Only the soft sound of grass swishing against opposing blades. And...the soft almost imperceptible sound of stealthy pedes creeping in her direction.

She swung around to face whoever it was blades sliding from her arms with a sharp click. A tall mech with chains hanging from his helm was looming over her, a cruel smile tugging at his mouth components. Acting on instinct she activated her blades vibrational output and swung them at the servo reaching for her.

It struck true, ripping through the energon lines and plating like it was a butter knife slicing through butter. She hacked his servo right off making him howl in pain and jerk back. Behind her she heard Crankcase and Sideswipe engage one another while Sides was screaming at her over the bond to try and figure out what was going on.

But she couldn't answer him as her opponent faced her again. "You stupid glitch!" He snarled angrily, holding his decapitated stump in his right servo. "I'm going to make you pay for that!"

Her body tensed, receptors picking up his movement a split astrosecond before he lunged at her. She ducked down and struck him in the side with her blades ripping another section open causing energon to spray and hit her in the face.

He roared again in anger drawing his blasters with a flourish and aiming them at her.

But she sensed which ones he was going to fire in what order as bright explosions of electrical pulse went off from the firing mechanisms. She jumped back weaving between plasma shots with precision, all her training with Jazz and Hide racing through her helm. Be focused! Be calm! Don't over think the situation in the head of battle. Let your instincts and skill guide you through each motion!

And right now instinct was telling her to strike back. He may be bigger than her but she was not scared of him! Drawing her shoulder and wrist blasters she retaliated by firing back, only she was able to hit her mark squarely in the shoulder. He was sent stumbling back and she raced after him with the intent to slam her swords into his spark chamber.

The mech reached over his shoulder and pulled a long spear from his back before throwing it at her.

The first one she deflected with her blades, but before she could react a second one slammed into her thigh struts. She groaned as pain lit up her nodes in that area. Slagger had damaged her hydraulic system with that throw! It was hard to sense his attacks when he wasn't using his guns! So he must be using a dampener of some sort. That was why she hadn't been able to evade his last attack.

**{Baby where are you?}** Sunny's voice suddenly echoed across their bond. **{Starscream, Barricade, and Hatchet just ran off! Where are you and Sides at? He's not responding to me over the bond!}**

She circled her enemy feeling the fresh wound he had inflicted on her straining with the effort of supporting her weight. Sides could not come to her aid so she had to protect herself. **{He's fighting Crankcase right now. I can't really talk Sunny or this mech is going to catch me off guard.}**

**{Don't close the bond! Tell me where you are! Are you in the same area that we left you?}** His panic and anger were quite clear to her.

**{No we're roughly twenty miles to the north of that position. I really have to-SLAGGIT!}** She roared and ducked down to avoid another spear being thrown at her. He had to be using a dampener to disrupt his impulses to throw her off. Only when he used his guns could she clearly sense it, other than that her senses were muddled. **{I have to go Sunny! He's using some kind of dampener to interfere with my senses! If I don't concentrate he's going to impale me with another spear!}**

**{ANOTHER SPEAR?!}** Sunny roared angrily. **{WHAT DO Y-}**

She cut the bond off when another spear was twirled around in her face. They circled each other slowly optics locked with one another. He chuckled at her smiling manically. "Did you think that your creator would not sense your change? All of them?"

She narrowed her optics on him. "Ratchet? My opiluck? What does he have to do with this?"

Those red optics narrowed on her. "No Shockwave. He is your real creator. I believe that he seeks to further his interests by offering you to Megatron."

She opened her mouth to tell him that he was crazy, that he was out of his fragging processor! Anything! But her spark was suddenly overcome with intense pain. So intense that her legs buckled out from under her until she slammed down onto the ground propped on one knee joint. Barely able to hold herself up.

Flashes of pain and fear, red optics staring down at her while she screamed and cried. Her body being torn and covered in her own life's essence, pain enveloping her like giant servos ripping her apart pieces by piece. She cried out clutching at her helm to try and combat the memories eating away at her processor. Her spark was racing, fear of the memories, of the unknown overcoming her.

She threw the bond with Sunny back open and screamed in agony over it. Everything that she was seeing, everything that she was feeling slammed into him. **{WHAT iS THIS?! SUNNY HELP ME!}** She felt herself falling into this black hole. All the way to the bottom, voices follwing her every foot that she fell. Screams hot on her heels, pain intensifying for every moment that she flew closer to hitting the bottom.

There was another voice yelling at her telling her not to let the past overcome her. But it was drowned out by the screams of despair and anguish. She couldn't even distinguish the memories, the flashes of color passing by so fast and so brightly that they nearly made her glitch. Her processor seemed to freeze making her body jerk as her spark continued to writhe in pain.

Her knee joint gave out sending her frame crashing into the ground. Where she just pulled herself into a ball as the memories ate away at her. Nothing made sense! Not the noise! Not the colors! Nothing made sense! The only thing that did was the emotions, the sensations. These she could interpret clearly. She keened in agony throwing her helm back so hard that her neck struts cracked.

It didn't even matter that she was breaking down in front of an enemy. Nor did it matter to her that he could take her without a fight because she was waging war with herself. Nothing mattered except for her struggle to not remember whatever this was. She didn't want it! Whatever it was! Just make it stop!

Screams and wails of such a high decibel were battering her audio receptors. So loud that she started banging her helm into the ground to drown it all out. It didn't seem to work for the screams only grew louder in volume until it was defeaning her. What was that sound? What was making that noise? It wasn't an adult bot! Most couldn't make their vocaliser function that high! So what was it?! And why was not knowing hurting her so much?

Somebot was yelling for her, somebot close by. Some part of her latched onto it in desperation using it as an anchor to drag herself out of whatever place she had fallen into. It felt like she was being weighed down by a thousand tons of scrap metal and gagged at the same time. Her vents were screeching with the need to intake air, hitching loudly with a rattle each time she drew in.

Her processor just would not process clearly. The colors sped up making her dizzy. In response she held tighter to the voice that was still yelling at her. Yelling at her to do something! Whether it was inside of herself or somewhere around her she ould not discern at this point. Maybe there was even more than one voice? In her state it was entirely possible that she was just imagining it.

A loud crash shook her frame making her panic escalate. The fear grew to almost suffocating proportions. Somebot was coming for her! Wasn't she supposed to be doing something? Running! She should be running! That mech with red optics was going to catch her!

"SWEETSPARK!"

Her optics suddenly focused allowing her to see passed the raging storm inside of her, spark clenching in fear that was even worse than before when she saw Sides laying on the ground on his back with Crankcase kneeling over him. Energon was dripping from his chassis where a rather nasty wound was visible. His optics met her's conveying strength and desperation.

Sudden silence overcame her struggles. Everything went quiet. Her emotions died down in the face of that look, in the face of seeing him about to be offlined. She didn't even hesitate to scramble up and lunge at Crankcase, temporarily forgetting about the bot that had been watching over her.

Her frame slammed into the much larger black mech sending them tumbling over the edge of the cliff they were on. Pain lit off in every receptor when she was slammed into rocks, being almost crushed under the weight of the larger mech.

They hit the ground and rolled in separate directions, with her coming up out of her sprawled position much faster. Her energon was overheated, dulling her pain and increasing her speed and strength. She had to get this mech away from Sides, the other one she was sure that he could handle. But this mech was going to cause problems, even though it appeared that Sides had given as good as he had received from the large gaping wound to the right side of Crankcase's chassis.

She turned and shifted to her alt mode since her leg could not support her weight properly at the moment. Her alt could however, so she used it to her advantage and sped off knowing that he would follow her. Their main objective was her after all so he would be foolish not to chase a novice Autobot.

And he chased her just like she thought he would. And she led him away from her intended mate, by now Sunny was almost to Sides' location so she wasn't worried that he would be offlined by stumpy. For now all she had to worry about was not getting botnapped herself.

Uncle Jazz's voice suddenly drifted through their guardian bond, along with his barely disguised panic. _**[Where are you baby girl? Sunny just commed and said that you and Crankcase were missing! He's raging pissed!]**_

_**[Crankcase was about to offlined Sides so I kind of tackled him over the cliff.]** _She dodged a tree and shot onto a dirt road to Primus knew where. _**[He's chasing me now. Where are you and Uncle Hide at?]**_

A plasma shot passed her side narrowly missing it when she swerved to avoid it. She activated her plasma SMGS and fired at her attacker in response as she sped up to put more distance between them.

_**[We're heading straight for ya! Sides and Sunstreaker finished off Crowbar and are coming up from your rear! Stay safe until we get to you!]**_

_**[Right.]** _Easier said than done when she was being shot at. At least she could sense the shots before they were fired making it easier to adjust her position accordingly. But if her comrades didn't get to her soon she was going to run out of energy. Whatever memory loop she had been trapped in, combined with her nasty wound was taking it out of her.

Stretching her senses out she quickly deduced that Sides and Sunny were much closer to her than Uncle Hide or Uncle Jazz. If she could stop Crankcase and hold him off for a few kliks they would reach her. Seeing this as the best course of action she jerked her alt mode around and slammed on her brakes.

Her pursuer did the same while she shifted back to bi pedal mode and aimed her blasters at him. "Don't move or I will shoot you down!" She warned him as she leveled her blasters on his chassis. Her thigh hurt like a mother slagging glitch, it did not help that she had jostled and broken both sides of the spear off leaving a good chunk still lodged inside her thigh. It was spilling energon pretty heavily too.

Crankcase didn't give her time to think on it for too long. "You Autobots are so predictable." He laughed darkly servos twitching with what she assumed was the need to just choke her or something. "We knew that the Autoscums would send you to locate the spark signatures of Barricade, Starscream, and Hatchet. So Shockwave developed a powerful dampening device to suppress our signatures both to allow us to sneak up on you, and also to give us an edge if we faced you in battle. Ingenious no?"

She powered up her blasters when he went to take a step closer to her.

"Now don't be like that femme. Megatron will treat you much better than he treats his soldiers. You will be allowed to bare him an heir, maybe several if he wishes it." A cruel smirk played at the con's mouth components. "And the rest of us will enjoy your presence immensely as well."

Those words sent fear racing through her spark making it race. Something about that notion terrified her as any notion of interfacing always did. Why? Did it have something to do with the muddled memories, the colors and sounds that she could now remember? She just could not place them in a solid picture or memory stream. They were just hovering in her processor like poison waiting to consume its' target. Waiting to consume her.

He suddenly lunged for her, too fast for her to react. She was sent crashing into the ground with him layered on top of her.

_**/Not like this! Not like this! Please not this again!/**_ Something inside of her screamed. Terror engulfed her causing her to strike out in a blind frenzy with her blades. She had no energy to do anything more than stab him in the soft metal plating of his side, since her wires were pinned under her body and she couldn't electrocute him anyways.

He growled and backhanded her splitting the soft metal of her face plates. His servos wrapped around her throat choking her, trying to send her into stasis.

She dug her blade deeper into his side thrashing her frame weakly in an attempt to dislodge him. It was futile though, she just didn't have the strength to throw his much larger frame off of her. She reached up with her free servo and dug her digits into his right optic in desperation. It was pretty much all that she could force her frame to do right now since she was bleeding out.

Her HUD was flashing bright red. Emergency protocols attempting to activate and send her into a forced stasis. Apparently more of her internal systems were damaged from the fall, on top of the various tears littering her frame from their fall.

**/Energon levels- 20%/**

**/Engine- Damaged. Cylinders filling with energon. Seek immediate medical attention./**

**/Stabilizers- Damaged. Seek immediate medical attention./**

**/Multiple energon lines- Severed. Seek immediate medical attention./**

Yeah her opi was going to have her aft for this when she got back. If she made it back... She kept her digits buried into Crankcase's optic and jerked it from its' socket causing him to howl in pain.

Since his servos were busy he just slammed his forehelm into her face shattering her right optic and denting her face plates. She resisted the urge to cry out and pulled on his optic. Anything to distract him and give herself more time!

"You filthy glitch!" He roared and punched her in the face.

Her left cheek plate was dented inward until she bite it off if she really wanted to. The pain didn't even matter when she was being strangled into stasis slowly. Would the memories disappear if she let herself fall? Would they make sense if she woke up again? Was she really being this morbid?

A loud commotion suddenly broke the relative silence of their little confrontation. Crankcase looked over his shoulder at the same moment that Sides and Sunny came barreling into the clearing wearing identical snarls of rage.

Crankcase was forced to release her when the latter of the two suddenly charged at him with an enraged roar upon seeing her battered form beneath him. He gave her one last look before he turned and disappeared into the trees.

Sunny seemed torn between wanting to follow him or stay with her, in the end the latter won out because he turned back and rushed over to her. His servos were immediately on her face plates assessing the damage done as he turned her helm in his direction. "Baby? Are you alright? Why am I even asking this? Of course you're not." He muttered to himself.

Her frame groaned when she forced herself to sit up. Arms were immediately steadying her so that she did not fall and worsen her injuries. She turned towards Sides without a word and started staunching his severed wires to prevent him from bleeding out.

She batted both of their servos away when they tried to stop her. "Knock it off and let me do this. I was assigned as the team medic for this mission." Just let her do this right at least... She felt so useless and weak right now. Her first mission had ended in a disaster for the team. What with her slowly offlining from having her internal systems crushed under her opponent's weight! And with Sides slowly bleeding out from the gaping wound in his chassis... A total failure. That's what this mission was...no what she was. A total fragging failure. If she could not stop the memory loops from happening in battle situations then what was she supposed to do? She was only a liability!

"Lay down so I can weld this on." She pushed Sides onto his back and started welding a sterile plate onto his wound. Not even a klik later Uncle Jazz and Hide came barreling down the dirt road that they were on. But she ignored them and focused on welding the plate on.

It certainly did nothing to stop her from hearing them fussing over her wounds. And they did not even know the full extent of them. When her opi told them they were going to rip her apart. For some morbid reason that made her smile softly, and she even started humming a soft tune under her breath while she worked. All chatter stopped in response. Each of them turned to look at her in surprise and worry.

But she ignored it and finished patching Sides up. "There you go. This will hold until we get back so long as you don't do anything incredibly stupid to tear it off."

Sides didn't say a word in response to that as he sat up and took her shoulders in his servos. "Sweetspark what happened to you? One moment you were fighting Crowbar and the next you were on the ground screaming. Was it another memory loop?"

The way he said memory loop bothered her. "I think so."

His grip on her tightened not painfully, just... He looked so torn and angry, so sad and troubled. Those dark yet bright azure optics were now almost black. He opened his mouth to say something to her.

Only to be interrupted when she started coughing up energon loudly. Her engines gave a loud groan in response as her engine cylinders screeched in an attempt to dispel the buildup in them. She was suffocating slowly. They seemed to realize that too because there was a flurry of motion, shouts, and one of them Sunny she thought pulled her into his arms.

Her helm lolled against his chassis as her emergency protocols took over. The last thing that she remembered seeing was him yelling down at her...though she could not hear the words.

* * *

><p>When she woke sometime later it was to the sight of the ceiling of the med bay, and to the sensations of pain littering her frame. At least her optic had been repaired so that she could see with both of them again. Though she was almost tempted to offline them when the angry face of her opiluk was suddenly looming over her.<p>

"Do not even attempt to play possum Lilydancer."

She winced. He had said her full designation and he only ever did that when she was in major trouble. "I would never do that opi." She forced out weakly. Her entire frame just hurt...and she was laying covered by a thick blanket keeping her protoform from view.

He crossed his arms over his chassis and raised an optic ridge. "Well?" Irritation dominated the bond. "Care to explain what exactly happened? And what you were thinking when you tackled a mech twice your size at least, off of a cliff?! Almost crushing your internal systems in the process?!" His voice rose into a loud growl on the end. Almost a scream really.

"Umm...spur of the moment thing?" That sounded awful even to her own audio receptors. She sighed and turned her aching helm in his direction more fully. "Crankcase had Sides pinned so I attacked him. We fell off of the cliff and his weight nearly crushed me a few times..." Ouch now that she was not fighting for her life she really felt the pain. "Then I led him away from the area because I knew that Sides would be able to hold off Crow...whatever his designation was, until Sunny arrived. But I also knew that Crankcase would kill him if given the chance so I decided to run because I knew that he would follow."

"So you disobeyed orders? Prime's orders were to stay with somebot!"

Her own temper flared in response. "Yes I know that! I didn't mean to tackle him off the cliff opi! It just happened! I had to make the best of what I could do! And since I knew that I was not getting back up that cliff with a bum leg and damaged stabilizers I did what I thought was right. Either way he probably would have come after me since I was the reason they were actually there!"

Dead silence met her words. "What?"

"I said that they were really there for me. They wanted to be found so that Optimus would send me to scout the area out! Crowbar or whatever told me that Shockwave," She paused, vents hitching a little at the name as her reaction to him before invaded her processor. No she had not forgotten this time. She just had not completely remembered. "had made a special dampener that allowed them to completely suppress their spark signatures and aura. So I played right into their servos opi! I told Uncle Jazz what we thought was important, when in reality I was doing what the cons wanted by separating the team. They even went so far as to have Crankcase drop his dampener to draw my attention to him so that I could not sense Crowbar sneaking up on us. The only reason that I did sense him was because I figured out that they had to be masking their signatures somehow, so I switched to my vibration panels. That allowed me to intercept Crowbar before he got his servos on me."

"All of it was planned." Her opi muttered gruffly. A statement not a question.

"Yes. They wanted to draw the attention of the team away from me using the other bots as a ploy." Some part of her said that she was missing something, that something about it was off. Something very important. Something that she should know. Whatever the case she knew that she was right about what she had just revealed to him.

"Sideswipe told me that you were stuck by another memory loop in the middle of battle." Her opi stated suddenly. "Why? What triggered it?" He asked softly as he sat down on the berth beside her. The gruff angry look fell as his concern for her won out.

"I..." For a moment she didn't want to tell him that that fragger had called Shockwave her opiluck. As far as she was concerned Ratchet was her only opi. He had raised her not anybot else. But that was why she had to be honest with him. Opi deserved to know. "He called Shockwave my mech creator...and for some reason I just..." Her vents hitched with a rattle when she focused on the blurred colors that represented these new memories or thought processes. Whatever they were, they made her feel pain and anguish. Fear and terror. Desolation and hopelessness. "I just lost it. I don't know why. But it just happened and I couldn't stop it. One moment I was clear and focused, and the next I was on the ground unable to think straight." Energon tears threatened to spill from her optics as she struggled against the pain of remembering something that she was unable to fully remember. Something that she should know but didn't. And that hurt. It hurt so much to know that somehow, some way, she had forgotten a part of herself. Maybe even all of herself.

"I am sorry that this happened to you sweetling." Opi leaned over her and started rubbing soothing circles on her helm. Their optics met and he conveyed all the love he was able to muster through just his gaze. "I will always be here no matter what. I will be there to pull you out of the pain. As your real opiluck it is my duty to do so."

Her spark thrummed happily when he pressed a soft kiss over her helm before pulling away. He was her real opiluck. The one that was always there for her no matter what happened. All of the bots on base were family. Speaking of family... "Where are Sides and Sunny?"

Opi scowled and pointed at the door to the med bay. "Right outside that door waiting to get into my med bay and clutter it up with their idiocy."

"Can I see them?" She asked hopefully. Maybe their presence would help her feel better.

Her opi hopped off of the berth and opened the med bay doors as soon as the words were out of her mouth components. Sides fell into the med bay with a loud clang while Sunny stood there scowling at his twin's prone form.

The angry look fell from the gold mech's mouth components when he caught sight of her awake. He stepped over Sides and approached her berth quickly. His arms wormed their way around her shoulders in a gentle hug. "Are you okay? You were pretty messed up when we brought you in."

Sides shot up and bounded over to her berth before she could respond. He hugged her other side, nuzzling her helm gently. "You scared the slag out of me sweetspark! One klik you're fighting Crowbar like an experienced war veteran, and the next you're down on the ground screaming. What exactly happened?"

Both of them pulled back at the same time to stare at her. It made her slightly uncomfortable to talk about what had happened but she owed them that much. "I don't really know why but...when Crowbar told me that Shockwave was my real creator I...well my processor started conjuring up all these blurs of color and emotion. I guess that it strained my processor and spark." And it had something to do with Shockwave. Was...was he really her creator? Were they really connected by energon? Did that mean that she was really sparked by a con? All this time she had thought that opi was her real opi by energon and coding, and now she was almost certain that it was not really the case. It didn't change what she felt for him, he had raised her and bonded with her in a way that Shockwave had obviously not.

But it did make her conflicted about who she was. Maybe even what she was. She did not want to have to admit that her biological creator was a con! Even if it did not change how she saw opi, it changed how she saw herself!

They were giving her an unreadable look, communicating back and forth over their sparkbond without her being able to hear. Finally Sunny spoke up after several long kliks. "You are an Autobot no matter what. Besides Ratchet the Hatcher is your creator and he raised you right. You're nothing like them baby, no you're too sweet and loving to ever be a con."

"Your spark is too pure." Sides nuzzled her. "You're too beautiful to ever be compared." He whispered into her audio receptor.

She knew what they were doing; they were trying to soothe her insecurities and self deprecation with their words and ministrations. They honestly believed what they were saying to her. They believed that she was too good to be a con, even if what Crowbar told her was true.

But as they both leaned down and took turns kissing her, despite her opi's warning growls; she had to wonder...if it really was true.

Was she something different than she had been taught to believe her whole life? Were these sudden memory loops proof of that?

What was she? Why couldn't she answer that question anymore?

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Sorry for the delay but I've been roped into babysitting almost every day this week! In the mornings too which is my alone time that I used to type. So this one is a little late! Anyways hope that you all like it!<p> 


	45. Chapter 45

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm typing this update up but I don't know if I'll finish it today so if I don't happy late Thanksgiving lol. For those of you who are having trouble with the poll, I may delete it then repost it to see if that helps since no one can vote since it won't let them. Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! LEMON! Mature readers only!

* * *

><p>"Sidessssss I'm fine!" She groaned for the millionth time that day when Sides started fussing over her. This had been the story of her life since she was injured on her mission, with them fussing over her several days after she was released from the med bay. Pit both Sides and Sunny had even gone so far as to ask Optimus and Prowl for some time off so that they could tend to her needs.<p>

And surprisingly enough Uncle Prowl and Optimus had agreed. What the slag was this world coming to when the Terror Twins asked for time off and actually got it? That's what she had to ask herself over and over again since they had first told her about their little vacation.

A ghost of irritation passed through her when Sides grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and threw it over her. She wasn't even cold! "Sides I'm not cold. Please stop fussing over me!" She kicked the blanket off making Sides scowl at her.

"Sweetspark you're still recovering! You need to stay warm and comfortable! That reminds me! Have you had your energon yet today?"

She twitched... Was he really that scatterprocessed that he did not remember getting her energon this morning? Pit he had woke her up from recharge to give it to her and she still remembered it! How the pit did he not? He was driving her nuts! She loved him but he was just being too overbearing. "Sides you were the one that got me my energon this morning." She deadpanned.

"Oh yeah I was!" He smacked his fist into his palm excitedly. "How did I even forget that?"

Sunny looked away from the painting he was working on and imparted his wisdom on them. "Because you're a slagging idiot." He deadpanned before he turned back to his painting. "You're always welcome to come and sit over here while I work Red, if only to keep you from being driven to insanity by Sides." Sunny murmured without looking away from his painting.

Sides pouted at her. "You wouldn't leave me for Sunny would you? He's not even fun!" A canvas suddenly hit Sides in the face. "HEY!"

"For being a slagger." Sunny grumbled as he came over and plopped down on the couch promptly wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "I can't even concentrate with you in here right now. Red's ok. She's safe, her tanks are full, and we're here to protect her. Just stop fritzing about whether she's cold or not."

"I'm not cold." She muttered under her breath.

Since the encounter with Crowbar and Crankcase she had been somewhat withdrawn and quiet, but that was because of the memories that she was trying to understand. All of her attempts had been in vain because she could not break the colors down into solid pictures. She could not place the screams and pain with a logical reason for them to exist. No matter how hard she tried the memories were just blurs without shape. Just sensations without reason. They had happened she was sure of it. But she did not know what they were or why they had.

It was making her somewhat depressed to have the emotions eating away at her spark without a logical reason for her to feel them. And every night since she had first been subjected to them nightmares had infested her recharge. The same kind of nightmares. Blurs of color and pain without form. Only she actually remembered her vid files now.

Almost like she was being forced to remember. None of it made sense to her no matter how she tried to look at it though. Because she was never taken from the base! She had grown up here safe and loved with her opi and friends, with her loves. They had always been there for her protecting her from harm. And yet something deep down was telling her that it was not all true.

Not that she doubted the memories that she could recall. Never would she ever doubt the level of emotion her opi or uncles felt for her. Nor would she ever question Sides and Sunny's love for her. How could she when their bond was always filled to the brim with adoration and absolute devotion? She could not. The bond would always speak more truth than words.

It was just hard for her to go through. She found herself leaning more on Sides and Sunny every cycle that went by, though she never really told them what exactly was bothering her. And they had asked repeatedly for her to talk...she just couldn't bring herself to. Until she understood what it was that ate away at her she could not.

Never did she stop to think that she should.

Her musings were interrupted when she suddenly felt mouth components nipping at her audio receptor. The unknown, the pain and fear were pushed away briefly so that she could focus on her intended's attentions. "Sides what are you doing?" She murmured quietly.

Sides worked his way down to her neck cables and nipped at one of the more sensitive ones.

She mewled softly embarrassing herself because of her own reaction. But before she could even think too hard on it Sunny's mouth descended on her's kissing her senseless. The kiss was gentle yet firm just like how Sunny always handled her. It made her feel loved and protected, and she responded in kind by gently kissing him back.

His glossa brushed over her low component requesting entrance which she allowed by opening up her oral cavity to him. She drew his glossa into her mouth and twined her own around it. A soft rumble shook her frame making her whimper softly. Their chassis rubbed against one another's stimulating the delicate seams in their armor.

She jerked in surprise and mewled softly when her spark gave a harsh thrum in response. The neural nodes near her spark chamber were igniting one by one making her frame clench in pleasure. It was still surprising how her frame could react to them. A few small kisses and lovebites and she was unable to really resist them.

Sides kissed up her neck forcing Sunny to separate from her so that they could switch off. He enveloped her mouth components as Sunny worked down her neck paying attention to the more sensitive cables.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him more fervently. His glossa brushed against her's at the same time that Sunny bit down on a very sensitive cable in her neck. A loud moan forced it's way out of her vocaliser before she could stop it. Sides rumbled in response and ran his digits over the seams in her armor.

Her entire frame suddenly froze fear coursing through her spark. The senseless colors and blurred pictures in her helm suddenly took shape from the stimuli. One moment she was just laying there basking in the attention, and the next she was seeing something that she desperately tried to convince herself wasn't real.

A loud ringing started up in her audio. Concerned voices blurring together. But she could not hear or see the two mechs in the room with her anymore. All she could see was the red opticked mech leaning over her prone form. She could feel that her body was strapped down, this knowledge filling her with panic.

In her memory she tried to struggle free of her restraints, sharp spikes cutting into her neck cables in response. Her entire frame was blurry to her optics when she looked down at herself. Only the bright blue of her energon mixed with something darker visible to her. All she knew was that she was small and defenseless. Was...was she just a sparkling in this memory? This nightmare? Was this...really real?

It was like she could see and feel what she was doing, but she could not actually control it. She could do nothing when the mech shifted down to alt mode and activated his bi pedal mode. She could only watch as he made his way across the berth to where she was laying.

Fear consumed her. She was laying defenseless in front of a Decepticon, with nobot to help her. Morbidly she wondered what he was going to do to her? Then again when his human clothing disappeared she was almost sure that she didn't want to know.

She started thrashing harder. In vain, to try and get away. But she couldn't get free, and the restraints were tearing at her wrists and neck more and more with every jerk. She didn't even care about that! All she cared about was getting away from him! Who was he anyways? What the slag was this? It had never happened! She kept trying to tell herself that in the hopes that it would make the memory go away but it didn't. Nothing was making his approach stop.

Nothing stopped him from kneeling down between her legs. Revulsion and disgust ate away at her spark when he layered his body over her much smaller one. She whimpered when she felt him pressing against her port making her want to gag.

And then he pushed in. Pain. So much pain came from his penetration that she cried out. Her optics stayed locked on his as he forced his way into her unwilling body.

Fear. Anger. Rage. Disgust. Sorrow. Regret. All of these emotions consumed her... He was all over her touching every part of her body making her feel revulsion and agony coursing through her.

His digits cut into her spewing fresh energon from the deep wounds. Another pained cry left her vocaliser as she thrashed in desperation to free herself. But her body was pinned and she could not move, this only serving to make her panic escalate even more.

She felt him forcing his way into her body over and over again. She could feel energon trickling down her thighs. And the pain was just so intense that her processor could not rationalize or balance it out. It was all that she could feel for what seemed like an eternity.

And then she could feel his release filling her. She could hear him groan in ecstasy...and it made her sick. His warm transfluid shot into her port and she could not help but to turn her helm and purge all over her prison.

Her optics started to dim as her frame slumped in exhaustion. The pain was too great, infesting her every node, spark, processor. And she just didn't want to fight what she had seen anymore.

All she knew was that it was real. Those things had happened to her.

But as her recharge protocols took over all she could ask was... How?

* * *

><p>She awoke sometime around six PM that night and looked around the dimly lit room. Her optics immediately took in the forms of her intended mates, her opiluck, and her guardians standing near the door and talking. For a moment she just watched them silently; wondering to herself if they knew what had happened to her?<p>

No probably not. If they had one of them would have said something. The memory was still fresh in her helm much to her dismay. Funny how she had wanted to remember so much, and now she was horrified by what those memories really were. Knowing had brought her no more relief than not knowing had.

Another mech had taken her. It didn't matter what form he had taken to do so, all that did matter was the fact that he had. She was soiled and worthless now. Undeserving of Sides and Sunny's affections. All this time she had wanted them to be her first, and now she was discovering that her innocence had already been taken.

It hurt her to look at them now. She was ashamed and disgusted with herself for being so weak that she allowed that to happen to her. It didn't matter if she was a sparkling or youngling when it happened! She still should have been able to do something to stop it! Anything at all!

The shame she felt made her look away when Sunny turned in her direction and saw that she was awake. She just couldn't face him after everything that she had seen. All she wanted to do was cry and disappear so nobot would ever have to see her weakness. But she couldn't, because she wasn't alone right now. And she would not allow herself to look weak in front of the others again. No way.

She felt Sides come over and settle himself on the berth behind her. His servos caressed her frame gently trying to ease her discomfort and fears. It didn't work. All it did was make her feel disgusted at herself, so she shrugged him off.

"Sweetspark?" He whispered quietly enough that the others didn't hear.

He grabbed her and turned her around to face him tucking her helm against his shoulder like when her opi used to cradle her when she was a sparkling. She stared up at him, he stared down at her from so close that she could feel his hot vents ghosting over her frame.

His optics seemed to search her's for an eternity it seemed like. He frowned at whatever he found. "What's wrong? Talk to me about it."

She shook her helm no and tried to jerk herself free. Her attempts were completely in vain for he refused to release her. Normally it would make her angry but now all it served to do was exacerbate the sparkbreak she was feeling. "Let me go." She whispered so quietly that the sound was barely there.

His frown deepened as he did the opposite and held onto her tighter. "No. Sweetspark talk to me. We're going to be mates one day soon, so please don't keep things in. If you can't say it out loud tell me over the bond. Let me help you feel better."

**{No.}** She opened the bond and repeated louder this time. Her spark was bleeding like a gaping wound filling their connection with fear, anguish, sparkbreak, sorrow, regret, and finally resignation. In her spark she knew that she was not good enough for them. She could not give them her frame because it was dirty and soiled.

Twin presences slid in to feel the extent of her emotions. Sides' hold on her tightened as he felt what she was feeling in her spark, his anger and frustration suddenly dominated his side of the link. **{We're not letting you go just because of something like this!}**

No. It wasn't right. None of it was right anymore. She shook what he said off as nonsense, because that's what it was. They wanted to keep her after finding out that she had been raped? Why? It just didn't make any sense to her and it probably never would. What she did know was that they deserved better.

They deserved better than her...and yet she wanted to cling to them. She was so selfish that she wanted them anyways even if she wasn't good enough. They always made the pain feel better. She was always allowed to lean on them when she was too scared or tired to fight. And she wanted it to stay like that even when she knew it wasn't right to let it be.

Loud pede stomps signalled Sunny's approach to the berth, said berth shaking when he leapt on top of it. She was suddenly jerked in his direction, optics taking sight of the now empty room before landing on his enraged looking face. It scared her that he was looking at her like that but she did not struggle.

"That...that is the biggest load of slag I have ever heard come out of anybot's processor!" He bared his denta and snarled. "What another bot does to you does not dictate your worth! If that was the case, if it was true Sides and I would be worth nothing! Look at us! We were gladiators in Kaon! We fought and killed back then because we were completely fritzed in the processors! And you never judged us for that when you already knew about it! You saw us for who we are now! So why can't we do the same for you? Why is your situation any different?"

They just didn't understand. The pits may have been a bad place, but if they had not joined them they probably would not have been here. They would have starved to death in some back alleyway, and while that did not make the killing ok...it made it so that she could accept it. But she had been raped due to her own weakness. That was different than fighting to the death because you had a choice; it was weakness pure and simple.

Their sides of the bond grew increasingly disgruntled the more they heard her thought processes. At this point she wasn't even remotely blocking them, didn't have the spark to.

Her frame was rolled over so that she was laying on her back between them. "What would prove it to you?" Sides asked quietly. "Ask us for anything and we'll give it to you. Anything that you need to prove how we feel just ask for it."

"Prove it." Was what escaped her vocaliser before she could stop it. It had not been what she had been wanting to say; in fact she had been about to take her leave before things got more difficult. And now her frame was locked up tight with mortification and shame. How could she have just asked them for something like that after everything that had happened? What the slag was wrong with her?

"If that's what you want." Sides whispered in her audio and licked it.

Sunny leaned over her running his servos down over her petite frame agonizingly slow. "If you need to feel that we aren't disgusted by your frame I can assure you that we aren't." His servo slid over her port plating making her jump.

Images of her attacker slammed into the forefront of her processor making her recoil back. She clamped her thighs down around Sunny's wrist to keep him from moving or touching her anymore as she struggled with the memory. It was like it was suffocating her slowly or poisoning her, making her feel like she could not intake air.

Only this time she didn't have to face the memory alone as she had been forced to before. Within the space of an astrosecond both of them were in her helm with her, giving her the strength to force the memories back. They filled her spark with feelings of courage, determination, love, and devotion. But they were also angry at the mech in the memory when they were forced to watch what she was going through with her.

It was honestly making her helm hurt to fight back as hard as she was. The despair and pain gave inches at most for every excess of energy that she put into fighting it off. Like an uphill battle that never seemed to end, one where you just felt hopeless the entire time.

Eventually she was able to overcome it and push it away so that she didn't have to think about it right now. It still sat at the edges of her awareness taunting her with it's presence. She had a feeling that no matter what happened it always would.

But for now she had another issue to deal with...her own stupidity. Sunny's servo was still clamped down between her thighs and he was waiting expectantly for her to do something. The question is did she need him to do anything? If she forced the fear away and let them join with her would it make her feel better?

And better yet; could she overcome the fear long enough to let them? Would she be ok letting them do the same thing to her that the mech had been doing against her will in the memory?

"But you're letting us do it." Sides pointed out. "It's different than being forced. So you shouldn't be scared sweetspark, nobot is forcing you. If you decide that you were a little too hasty in that earlier request we will understand."

Her optics met his sincere ones seeing the absolute truthfulness of his words shining in them. He meant it. They would never think badly of her for pulling back away from this if she wasn't ready, even if she had started it. Both of them were always so patient and understanding of her. Not for the first time she felt a swell of love for them in her spark.

"Ok. I'll try." It was all that she could promise them at this point, because she did not know what to expect from this coupling. Her memories were trying to convince her that it would only result in pain, but Sides and Sunny were promising the exact opposite. And she hoped that letting them touch her would chase the other mech's caresses away.

Sunny nodded once before wriggling his servo against her port plating to get her to spread her thighs apart. "Ok. Just tell us if you want us to stop at any time."

The next thing she knew they were removing her armor from her protoform before dropping it off the side of the berth. She instinctively tried to cover herself with her arms both from fear and embarrassment. But neither of them were having that because the next thing she knew Sides had gently removed her arms from her chassis and pinned them to her sides.

"Can I touch?" He asked quietly. She nodded her acceptance slowly, still somewhat frightened of this situation. He placed his servos at her well filled out chassis and slowly dragged them down over the sensitive wires and cables making her release a breathy whimper.

They were in her helm the entire time, helping her to fight any fear away. Leaving her to only experience the sensations being evoked in her. She had never known that their bond was so strong that they could control her emotions so much. But she had not the time to think about it when a glossa brushed over the sensitive wires on the protoform of her chassis. Her mouth components fell open as a soft moan spilled from them. It only grew louder in intensity as Sides licked his way down to join his brother between her thighs.

Sunny licked his way up from the knee while Sides kissed and licked down her abdominal plating. Both met at her port and slid their glossas over the node as well as the opening. She made some sort of squealing moaning sound and bucked her hips as an intense wave of heat crashed through her frame centering in a strong pressure in her chassis and port.

Her processor was so desperately trying to make her feel fear during this moment. Trying to conjure up all of the images that she had just remembered, but they were pushed away roughly by her intendeds. She could feel from them the anger and need for vengeance that flowed strongly from their sparks. They only wanted her to feel what they were doing to her, not what he had done to her. And they were very adept at forcing the memories away, because she could not even focus on anything else besides them.

Their glossas were teasing the node, the small seams in her protoform, her opening, all with practiced licks and just the right amount of ferocity and passion. She could feel Sides sliding his glossa into her opening, only this time she was infested with their own need to the point that she could not have pulled back if she wanted to. All she could focus on was the incredible feeling that accompanied it now that she had let one of them do it. And she had to wonder what she had been afraid of in the first place.

His glossa teased her internal nodes, sliding in and out of her channel making her moan and buck her hips into his seeking attentions.

And Sunny was not sitting idle during this either, no he was furiously attacking her external node making her scream.

Her frame was continuously racked with pleasure the likes of which she had never imagined she could feel, making the pressure in her spark chamber and port tighten almost painfully. She even went so far as to grab the back of their helms to help move them along faster as her overload started to build up.

And they seemed to sense it too because both of them sped up to bring her that pleasure she was seeking. All she could do was hold on for the ride as her hips were pinned down to keep her where they wanted her, so that they could use their experienced glossas to help her. She whined in response panting in a wanton manner, her reactions surprising her immensely. It was like once they started this her inner hussy came out and bitch slapped her scared little side into submission, leaving her only able to concentrate on how good it felt conversely.

They continued to speed up and increase the intensity of their attentions until she was practically screaming on the berth. Her port was clenching so hard that it hurt, the thin claws of overload slowly giving way agonizingly slow at first. And then one sharp nip from Sunny, and one rough thrust of Sides' glossa made the coil snap.

She cried out as a rush of pleasure so intense crashed through her in a massive wave of intense heat. So intense that she barely even registered it when something forced it's way into her port making a small twinge of pain flash through her. But the overload washed it away almost immediately as she wildly bucked her hips up into whatever was inside of her.

The pleasure lasted for longer than what she remembered from the last time leaving her to slump back into the berth when it passed. She panted, taking in for the first time that Sides was propped over her, that and his rod was inside of her port. It felt nothing like her memory told her it should. There was not the sharp pain that she had expected, just a small amount of soreness that was rapidly fading. "What?" She got out rather eloquently. How had he even gotten in her without her noticing?

Sides chuckled and gave a small thrust of his hips. "It's easier to take a femme in the throws of an overload, makes penetration easier."

She gasped as even that small movement made her feel like she was on fire. Her servos flew to his shoulders and clamped down on them as she hesitantly thrust her hips back shyly. This felt nothing like her nightmare did.

Sides growled heatedly as he started thrusting into her softly. He bowed over her frame kissing her everywhere that he could reach, her face, lips, neck, chassis. "Nobot will ever touch you like this but us. Never again sweetspark." He groaned.

Whimpers and soft breathy moans were the only response that she could give to that. He was being so gentle with her that it almost made her spark ache. She could feel the love in each thrust, his undying devotion to her, and it chased away the pain that she had felt earlier. All she could focus on was the way he was igniting her internal nodes with each thrust of his hips. It felt so good. Like a fire slowly building up filling her with it's warmth.

It had her so enraptured that it came as a surprise when Sunny crawled up the berth and pulled her into a heated kiss. His servos shot to her door wings and massaged the delicate nodes intensifying what she was already feeling. Their glossas swirled together as he devoured her moans.

Sides started speeding up his thrusts around that time making her moan loudly as her port clenched in response. She broke from the kiss she was sharing with Sunny so that she could pull Sides into another one, she wrapped her legs around his aft pulling him tighter to her. He groaned and sped up slightly in response, obviously wanting to hold back for her sake. But she was rapidly growing tired of that.

Breaking from their kiss she panted out a breathy, "Harder."

Sides looked at her in surprise before complying by steadily increasing the rate of his thrusts with a loud groan. He started twisting his hips upon thrusting back in make them both shudder and moan. His helm fell onto her's so that their optics could meet. "Primus sweetspark! I love you so fragging much!" He grunted out before kissing her again. Hard.

Nothing but pleasure, no fear or pain. Nothing but the blinding heat and ecstasy that she had never expected to feel. It didn't even matter to her that he was almost pounding into her now, because he was not doing it to make her feel pain. And she felt none whatsoever, it only felt amazing. She could feel her overload building up again rapidly making her clutch at Sides harder to try and keep herself grounded. But she couldn't.

Sides wouldn't let her. He shifted her hips higher and pounded into her making her cry out and overload all at once. It took her completely by surprise shattering any hold she had on her reactions. She broke the kiss they were locked in and screamed. "SIDES!"

He only stiffened and jerked roughly, before snarling as something hot shot into her port. "Sweetspark... sweetspark...!" He kept moaning in breathy tones. His hips stilled after another klik or so as he barely held himself up on shaky arms.

Their optics were locked on one another's as he leaned down and kissed her languidly while pulling out of her. He moved to the side without breaking their kiss as another body settled in between her thighs. She knew that he was trying to distract her in case she didn't react well to being completely there when Sunny penetrated her. But by now she was mostly comfortable with this thanks to their help. They were using their bond to channel any fear that she was feeling so that it did not cloud this encounter. And for that she was thankful, because this was nothing like her fear filled processor could have made her believe.

That was why she did not panic or pull away when she felt Sunny push against her entrance. In fact she pulled away from Sides so that she could watch him. His optics were locked on her almost like he was expecting her to pull away in fear, or maybe he was willing to wait for permission unlike Sides had. She couldn't help but to smile a small smile at him. "It's ok. I'm not scared anymore. If I was Sides wouldn't have gotten as far as he did."

Sunny still hesitated, his heated optics watching her warily for any sign that she was not as comfortable as the bond was conveying. He rubbed her thighs gently massaging the aches away, that and to calm her down. When she did nothing to push him away after almost half a breem he finally relented and pushed his rod into her port.

His protoform came flush against her's pinning her under his much larger mass. At this moment she realized how much larger they really were, how much size and mass they had on her. With how gentle and loving they always were with her she had overlooked the fact that she only came up to their lower or mid chassis. But even with that considerable size difference they had never hurt her, not even in training or sparing. Never once had they used that brute size to intimidate or frighten her. And here she had been scared of them all because of a memory, she almost felt ashamed of herself because of that.

"Don't be." Sunny murmured. "You had a reason to feel like that. It really shows how strong you are that you can allow us to do this to you when you were so frightened earlier." He nuzzled her helm and pushed his rod forward gyrating it in a circle inside of her.

A soft whimper broke from her vocaliser from how good it felt, and she responded by pushing back against him.

He rumbled low in his chassis, engines revving loud as he pulled back and thrust into her at a moderate pace.

She grabbed his helm and dragged his mouth to her's forcing her glossa into his mouth. They rocked together on the berth as their glossas twisted around each other's, each moan or groan being devoured by the other. The feeling of his powerful frame hovering over her, forging it's way inside of her frame over and over again made her feel almost over charged. Sunny was forceful yet gentle with her just like Sides had been, but he wasn't racing through the encounter. He was taking it slow and leisurely, gradually working himself up with each thrust.

It did not make it any less pleasurable for her to have her frame slowly ignited on fire. In fact it made it even more intense for her. He thrust deep hitting the very bottom of her port making light flash behind her optics and her frame lock with ecstasy. She moaned into his mouth loud, hips jerking back as the nodes were lit on fire. "Harder. Please." She whimpered.

Her golden mech was only too happy to grant her request. Rearing back onto his knees he took her thighs in his servos and pulled her lower half off of the berth and thrust into her harder.

She arched and cried out as the coil in her abdomen tightened so hard that she felt like she could not intake air through her vents. Her helm thrashed from side to side sending her wires flying about her form. She caught sight of Sides laying on his back beside her, and her port clenched when she saw him stroking his rod while he watched her.

Something about it caused the coil in her to snap suddenly taking her by surprise yet again. A shrill scream of Sunny's name left her vocaliser as so he arched so hard that her back struts gave a sickening crack, not that she was paying attention to that when another intense overload washed through her frame.

Her golden mate-to-be rode her through her overload intensifying it to dizzying proportions, before he jerked and roared as he spilled inside of her. Even more erotic was the way that Sides jerked and sprayed transfluid from the sheer intensity of what he was feeling through his sparkbond with Sunny.

She panted, groaning softly when some of it landed on her arm and stomach plates. Never had she felt so full or complete before. It felt beyond amazing.

Sunny withdrew from her and used a polish rag and some cleaner to clean her up. While he as doing that Sides used another polish rag to clean up the transfluid that he had spilled on her. The way they touched her was as if she was a breakable piece of glass, that's how gentle they were being as they cleaned her. No. Interfacing with them could never be anything like that nightmare she had been made to remember. Because they were nothing like that mech, whoever he was.

Once again she felt nothing but devotion and love for them. So strongly that it honestly surprised her. Some part of her had always held back slightly for reasons that she did not understand, but after what had just happened that hesitance was gone. All she wanted were memories like this forever.

"And we'll give that to you."

"We promise you that sweetspark."

"We'll give everything that we have to make sure that you have everything you want, and need." They both murmured together as they settled down on either side of her and encased her between their frames. Two kisses were pressed to either side of her helm as the rumble of their engines started lulling her into recharge.

Her exhaustion and healing injuries caught up with her pulling her under faster than she would have liked. The last thing that she saw was both of their smiling faces before her world went dark.

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

The next morning he awoke to the feeling of being completely sated after last night's activities. While it had been more about seeing to Lily's needs than their's, they had still greatly enjoyed joining with her. And his theory had been proven right! She had a seal! So he had technically been her first! That only made him feel better about the whole situation. That and he was almost certain that she would feel better about her memory now. He could only hope that it would last when, and if she remembered more.

He groaned and stretched his frame before rolling onto his side. Sunny had at some point in the night pulled Lily onto his chassis and was now cuddling her like she was a teddy bear. He took a still photo for later use against his twin while he gently slid his servo down Lily's back struts and door wings. A small whimper of pain stopped him and made him wince. While he did not regret taking her...maybe it would have been better to wait until she was not recovering from severe injury.

Her whimper woke Sunny up with a snort. "What? Wha happen?!" His twin looked down at their sparkmate when she onlined her optics and moaned softly.

"Ow..." Lily whimpered as her wings twitched stiffly. "Back struts are killing me."

Sunny sat up and sat Lily on the berth between them using his arm to support her. "Sorry baby. We should have been more gentle with you after everything that's happened lately."

A furious energon blush broke out across her cheek plate as flashes of their encounter raced across her processor. Apparently she had a processor to be embarrassed about her nakedness even, because the next thing they knew she had dove off of the berth with an embarrassed squeak to gather her armor. All while frantically whispering, "I'm naked! I'm naked!"

He snorted and peeked over the side of the berth so that he could watch her. "A little late for that sweetspark. We've already seen everything you have to offer."

She squeaked and turned a heated glare on him, blushing more when she caught him watching her. "Sides stop watching me! It's embarrassing! I can't believe I let you two do that to me last night! I've become a hussy!" She blurted out, then squeaked again before hastily trying to snap her armor on while muttering under her breath.

She probably thought that she was being quiet enough that they couldn't hear her soft whispers about how good it felt... That made a genuine sense of pride course through him causing him to break into a shit eating grin. "I can hear you!" He sang as he hopped from the berth.

Lily turned to yell at him only to choke when her optics landed on his interface rod. With a shriek she suddenly whirled around and covered her optics with her arm. "SIDES PUT THAT THING AWAY FOR THE LOVE OF PRIMUS! ARE YOU TRYING TO SCAR ME FOR LIFE?!"

Ok now she was being completely...obtuse. "Sweetspark you already saw it last night!" He protested as he stood there doing nothing. "We interfaced last night! It was inside of you! Why are you freaking out about it now?"

"Well," She spluttered a bit before she turned and pointed at it with her optics offlined. "Because! I didn't really see it last night! And! And! And you guys killed my back struts from how hard you fragged me!"

A snort turned into a full out laugh as he threw his helm back with mirth. Oh this was priceless! She was so fragging cute when she was embarrassed! Another squeak and a loud, 'Sunny put your plating back on' drew his attention back to Lily again in time to see her lift her chassis plating in front of her optics to shield them.

Sunny was laying on the berth completely unperturbed at being in his protoform. "Baby lay back down before you hurt your back struts more." He commanded her.

"Not until you put your armor back on! Because you're turning me into a hussy and I'm too sore, and, and-" She wildly flung her arms out and flailed them around sending the armor that she was holding flying in all directions. "JUST PUT YOUR ARMOR BACK ON RIGHT NOW!" She suddenly roared as she flushed the color of a blueberry, her embarrassment making her ramble on. "AND JUST BECAUSE I LIKED IT LAST NIGHT DOESN'T MEAN I WANT IT NOW! AND IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER IF THAT WAS A TOTAL LIE! NOW YOU SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO? YOU'RE MAKING ME RAMBLE BECAUSE YOU INFECTED ME WITH YOUR STUPID!"

"I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE THAT YESTERDAY I WAS FREAKING OUT OVER THOSE MEMORIES, AND THEN WE FRAGGED, AND NOW YOU'RE STILL NAKED AND I'M FREAKING OUT BECAUSE YOU'RE NAKED! AND NOW I'M NOT SCARED OF FRAGGING ANYMORE AND I'M SCARED I'M GOING TO WANT IT AGAIN! AHHHH NO SHUT UP! LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME!"

He watched her flail herself around in amusement as she tripped over her armor and face palmed on the floor, where she promptly started screaming at them even louder to put their armor back on. It seemed like she thought that the floor could block their nakedness from her, and he guessed that it technically could. But he decided to have mercy on her and put his armor back on before tossing Sunny's at him.

His twin grumbled about having to put his armor back on so early in the morning, but otherwise complied with the silent demand to put it back on before hopping off the berth. "Ok we have our armor on."

A slow, almost hesitant lifting of her helm was the response to that. Her optics drifted over their armored frames as she sighed in relief...and possibly sadness. She slowly got onto her knees and raised herself onto her pedes.

"You're still in your protoform." He pointed out with a cheeky grin.

Her optics shot down to her naked form a split astrosecond before she dove for her armor with a yell of, "PERVERTS!"

It was almost comical how fast she clicked her armor back into place. "I'M NEVER LETTING YOU TWO DO THAT TO ME AGAIN! CELIBESY!"

"You left celibesy behind last night baby." Sunny pointed out dryly, honestly not getting why she was so embarrassed about last night's events.

"And you know that now that you've had us you'll always want us." He pointed out eagerly. It wasn't that he was so foolish to hope that she would completely get over her issues just from one night of passion, but together the three of them could help her overcome them completely. They just needed time.

"Nooooo celibesy!" Lily whined pitifully sounding just like she had on the day that she had first received the interfacing talk. "But I liked it!" She completely contradicted herself.

"Maybe we should take you to Ratchet so that he can give you some pain suppressant for your back struts?"

She looked at him with energon filled optics. "No! My opi will totally figure out what happened! I want to live!"

"Now she's just being an idiot." Sunny muttered as he pulled her up from the floor. "Just say that you woke up sore from recharging on your back struts for too long. He'll believe it if you're convincing enough."

Together they dragged her from the room in the direction of the med bay. It did not escape his notice the way that some of the other bots they passed smirked at them knowingly. So they had been pretty loud then? Huh...maybe Ratchet would know after all.

For that reason when they arrived at the med bay he ushered Lily in first in case Ratchet was tempted to throw any wrenches, he would think twice about hitting her. As soon as she was safely inside he peeked his helm in and inched his way inside. He saw Ratchet sitting on a stool watching them enter the med bay, and he winced at the look on the CMO's face plates.

"Sore back struts Lilydancer?" Ratchet asked knowingly.

"Umm yes." Lily shuffled her pedes nervously.

"Might I inquire as to why they are so sore?"

"I recharged on my back all night." She answered rather convincingly.

"Hmmm..." Ratchet hummed as he got to his pedes and retrieved some pain suppressants from one of his drawers. "Sit down so that I can inject this into your main energon line."

She sat herself on the berth that he instructed so that her opiluck could administer the suppressant.

Then it came from out of nowhere! All that he had to warn himself of impending doom was the swishing of a wrench flying through the air before it impacted his helm. A loud yelp of pain escaped his vocaliser as the wrench hit him hard enough to make him stumble back. But he didn't even have time to react to it before he was tackled to the floor and servos were choking the life out of him. He saw Ratchet's furious face staring down at him with a snarl and his energon ran cold.

"YOU SLAGGING PIECE OF SCRAP METAL!" Ratchet roared as he reached out and pulled a stunned Sunny down into their wrestling match. He promptly started beating Sunny on the helm with a wrench as he switched to choking him with his legs. "HOW DARE YOU INTERFACE WITH MY FEMLING?! I'LL RIP YOU APART AND FEED YOU TO UNICRON!"

"Opi stop it!" Lily suddenly lunged on her opiluck and started beating him in the helm with a wrench when he refused to let go. "STOP BEATING ON THEM! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MATE WITH THEM IF YOU BEAT THEM TO DEATH?!"

An incomprehensible roar of pure rage was the only response Ratchet gave to that.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Lily's wrench kept finding purchase on Ratchet's helm until the CMO was forced to let them go.

"DON'T YOU HIT YOUR OPILUCK!" Ratchet whirled on her and smacked her in the helm with his own wrench.

While they were fighting he briskly made his way over to a corner and curled up into it. He had reacted just as bad the second time that they had taken her for the first time! And that was a total contradiction! But who the slag cared?!

Ratchet the Hatchet was a menacing force of nature! Next time they interfaced he was going to steer clear of the med bay for weeks! That was a fragging promise!

But even though he had received a beating for their actions he could not regret it. Because Lily looked almost like her old self again. Everything that was him and Sunny, and everything that they were not.

And he would do anything to see her stay that way...

Even facing Ratchet the Hatchet... Shudders... that was a scary thought no matter what way he thought about it. But for her he would do it...even if his helm hurt for days afterwards.

Because she deserved everything they had to give. All the happiness they could muster for her.

And he promised to give her that. They promised to give her that.

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><p>R&amp;R! Sorry for the delay but I have not had access to the computer lately since I've been so busy! And I was unsure of putting the lemon in now so let me know what you all thought!<p> 


	46. Chapter 46

Vote is still going guys! Check it out and vote! I think that before I use whatever candidate wins I might do a story chronicalling the first three movies only I might go AU during the third just because I have not seen the fourth yet. That and I don't want to kill Ratchet off ever! Anyways just some ideas! I DO NOT OWN TF!

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><p>She roused from recharge slightly after seven in the morning according to her chronometer. With a soft yawn she turned onto her side and cuddled into Sides' chassis with every intention of going back into recharge for at least another hour. But it became apparent after several kliks that recharge was not going to come to her again.<p>

Because in the silence of the room her processor wandered back to recent events again. She had discovered so many things about herself that she had never known before; such as the fact that her opi was not her biological creator. The way he had reacted when she had told him about what Crowbar told her spoke volumes on what was the truth. Strangely enough it did not bother her that he was not her biological creator. If he had not taken her or whatever had happened for her to end up in his care, then she would probably have ended up a twisted con.

So it did not bother or even affect her opinion of him. What it did affect was her opinion of herself. She was a con's sparkling! Would other Autobots that had not yet arrived understand and accept her for how she had been raised and not who had sired her? Her wings twitched once in nervousness... She hoped so.

And then there was the fact that she remembered being raped as a sparkling, and the subsequent interface with the twins that that discovery had led to. It made her feel a pit of a lot better knowing that they were not disgusted with her over what had happened. They had even helped her move through the experience as fear free as possible through the use of their strange bond. She had always thought that it was a Guardian bond, but it seemed much stronger than what she shared with Uncle Jazz and Prowl. It was even stronger than her bond with opi and that bond was much more strong and stable than her Guardian bond as well.

For the first time she was really questioning it. What was it that had bound them together like they were? What were they to her, besides intended mates and best friends? If it helped her, no matter what it was, could it ever be considered a bad thing?

If it helped soothe the nightmares she was sure to have in the future...could it be bad? And if it made it easier for her to move passed the past, could she ever regret whatever it was?

No that wasn't possible. Something in her spark, no her entire spark told her that it would never be possible to resent whatever they had. Now if only she could understand it.

A broad chassis pressing itself up against her back roused her from her processing, the soft purr of a strong engine sending soothing tingles through her frame. A servo found its' place on her side to rub soothing circles there. Sunny was awake.

She purred softly and carefully turned onto her other side so that she was facing her golden mate-to-be. "Morning Sunny."

Bleary recharge muddled azure optics stared back at her tiredly. He vented heavily and wrapped his arms around her frame. "Morning baby. Did you recharge well?" His deep voice was thick with tiredness. Sunny always took a while to wake up fully. Unlike Sideswipe who was usually awake and going within a few kliks.

She snuggled into him seeking the warmth that wafted off of his frame in waves. He tilted his helm down and pressed a kiss to her mouth. A soft happy trill built up in her chassis from the feel of his metal lips gently caressing her's.

He rolled them without breaking contact so that she was situated on top of his chassis. He kept up the contact, gradually becoming more fervent in his attentions though he did not stray from kissing her.

From their bond she could sense his hesitance to push her for more, such as was the case since their first and only time. Since then neither had even done anything remotely suggestive to her beyond kissing. True it had only been a few days, and she was still coming to terms with things, but it was still strange to her that they had such control over themselves. Maybe they wanted to wait until she felt more comfortable herself without the use of the bond?

They broke contact after a few more moments when a rousing from the other side of the berth interrupted them. Both of them turned in time to see Sides onlining his optics. "Morning Sides." She greeted him with a smile.

"Morning sweetspark." Sides smiled tiredly at her and motioned for her to come to him.

She vacated Sunny's chassis to crawl across the berth into Sides' awaiting arms so that he could tug her into his chassis, where he too engaged her in a series of good morning kisses. A soft squeak escaped her vocaliser when Sides playfully squeezed her aft. "Sides!" She admonished him quietly.

He had the gall to grin at her like he had done absolutely nothing wrong. "What Lily? My servos like to wander sometimes what can I say?"

She shoved him off the berth making him clatter to the floor with a loud yelp. "Pervert!"

His pouting face popped up over the side of the berth not even an astrosecond later. "Not fair sweetspark! Why don't you ever push Sunny off the berth?"

She opened her mouth to answer him when a comm link pinged on her HUD. With a sigh she motioned for Sides to wait while she answered the message. **'Lilydancer here.'**

**'Ey baby girl! Can yo' come ta da Prime's office in a b'eem or so?'**

She furrowed her optic ridges and scooted to the end of the berth. **'For a mission briefing or...?'**

**'Dunno yet sweetlin'! Bu' da Prime wanted ta see yo'.'**

Well who was she to deny Optimus Prime when he wanted to see her? **'Of course. Tell him that I will be there in a few kliks. Lilydancer out.'**

**'See ya den baby girl!'**

The comm link went silent after that leaving her feeling nervous about whatever Prime could want to see her for. If it was another mission she sincerely hoped that it went better than the last one. She hopped off the berth and started for the door, pausing in the door way to glance over her shoulder at Sunny and Sides, both of who were standing alert near the end of the berth. "Umm I have to go and see Optimus. Be back in a few ok?"

Sunny frowned deeply and moved towards her with a servo raised out towards her. "Baby you aren't- I, well baby..." He trailed off as if he was unsure of what to say. That was just Sunny though, he never spoke well to express himself when he was worried. **{Baby I don't want you going out on another mission.}**

She stiffened, unsure if she had heard him right. **{What?}**

Sides looked between the two of them carefully. **{What Sunny means to say is...we're worried that something might happen to you if you go out on another mission. We're worried about it.}**

Well she understood that, really she did. But it wasn't her choice as to when she went out or if she went out at all. She was a rookie Autobot and that meant that she took orders from her higher ups no matter what they were. **{Sides...Sunny... You two know that I can't deny a mission if Prime has one for me. And besides! Uncle Jazz just said that he wanted to see me! Nobot ever said anything about a mission yet! And even if I am given one I have to do my best to try and complete it!}** She channeled her desire to prove herself through the bond that they shared. No matter what happened the last thing that she wanted was to be a failure to their cause. And after her last mission she desperately wanted to prove that she could handle this life.

**{Baby nobot blames you for what happened with Crowbar and Crankcase! Things happen in the field that you can't be held accountable for. And besides, you did your mission as the team medic just fine!}** Here he scowled darkly at her and took another step towards her. **{Even if you were slowly offlining from having your engine clogged and you didn't tell us.}** He channeled his displeasure into her.

And there was enough of that to make her wince and shift back nervously... When Sunny was angry he was way intense, normally it did not bother or frighten her but he was more upset than usual. **{Regardless, I can't not go to see Optimus just because you don't want me to. I'll let you know what happens. Promise.}** With that she inched towards the door intent on fleeing while she had the chance.

She pushed the button to open the door and fled through it as soon as she had the chance. Displeasure was dominating her bond with the twins as she rushed down the hall towards Optimus' office. There was nothing that could be done about it! She didn't know why they were acting so overbearing about her talking to Prime anyways! It wasn't like she could just not go because they weren't happy about it! And that was something that she conveyed through the bond with them.

Only they did not respond to her emotions or thought processes. That saddened her, but she refused to let it get her down. She straightened up as she stopped outside of Optimus' office and pressed the alert button to let him know that she was there.

The door opened so that she could be ushered into the room by Uncle Jazz. That was when she realized that Uncle Prowl was there as well, sitting next to Optimus. She took a seat in the chair offered to her as Uncle Jazz took his seat next to Uncle Prowl.

Her door wings twitched in nervousness flaring out a bit to make herself seem bigger. She stayed silent while she waited for one of them to say something. Her processor kept trying to conjure up different scenarios of why they could have called her here, some of them not being good. It made her spark jump in anxiety but she did not say anything.

"Lilydancer." Optimus' deep authoritative voice drew her attention back to him exclusively. His kind blue optics locked on her own green ones in what she deduced was a reassuring way. He was not angry at her, that much her antennas told her. "I know that Prowl spoke to you about what happened in Salt Lake..."

She stiffened. "Yes sir." Something told her that she was not going to be liking whatever was said at all.

A wave of almost apologetic emotion wafted off of him. "And we have spoken in length about what we should do now that we know the cons are after you."

She felt the bond she shared with the twins shift indicating that they were now paying attention to what was being said intensely. For a moment she contemplated clamping down on it but she refrained knowing how much that would anger Sunny.

"We have spoken at length and have come to a conclusion about what to do with you." The Prime's unwavering gaze never once strayed from her, nor did her gaze ever stray from his. "And we have decided that until further notice you are confined to base. You will not partake in any missions until we figure out a way to better protect you. Until then you are to assist in the med bay."

The twin's relief suddenly flooded the bond... But it was the exact opposite of what she was feeling! With a sharp internal growl she slammed them forcefully out of the bond feeling their surprise briefly before her helm went blessedly silent. Pit she even dulled down her bond with opi in the off chance that he was listening.

Hurt was welling up in her spark... Did they really think her so incompetent that they would deny her any field assignments? Had she really disappointed them so much that they would confine her to the base?! Her skills were of more use out in the field than in the med bay!

"This is not a punishment littlespark."

Her helm snapped over in Uncle Prowl's direction, a glare twisting her face into an angry scowl. "The pit it's not! You're confining me to base like a fragging useless sparkling! What was the point of all the training you put me through if you were only going to do this?! What good are my perception skills here? How am I ever supposed to gain experience as a spybot if you lock me up?"

Uncle Prowl frowned at her door wings twitching up in a sharp reprimanding motion. "How are we supposed to let one of the last femmes go out into the field knowing that the Decepticons are after her? What part of that is logical? This is not about anything that you have done, it is not a punishment, nor is it a forever situation. As soon as we figure out a way to better way to prevent the cons from getting their servos on you we will allow you to go out into the field again."

So she was grounded. Great. Did they really think that they would figure out a way to protect her when the cons were probably making more dampeners as we speak? Soon they would be able to outmaneuver even her senses rendering them useless. That was why she wanted to go out again to see if maybe there were limits to the dampeners, what senses they dampened most, whether there were any traits that maybe they had overlooked that she could pick up on. She had been distracted last time they had snuck up on her! But her vibrational sensors had caught them just fine! So she was not completely defenseless! All she had to do was learn to use her vibration panels! But from the looks on their faces this was non negotiable.

A surge of angry defiance welled up in her. They were forcing her, and while she knew that she had to give she did not want to! She may be a rookie! A low ranked new Autobot that was beneath the other bots! But she had the drive to prove herself and that should count for something!

"Starting today you are to assist Ratchet and First Aid in the med bay." Optimus continued on unconcerned by the glare she was sending him. "We will be looking into the situation with the dampeners. Wheeljack is already working on it as we speak."

So many angry retorts were sitting just on the tip of her glossa forcing her to bite the appendage between her denta to keep from spewing them at the Prime. That would only earn her brig time which no sane bot would ever want. So she bit out a cutting. "By your orders Prime."

Optimus looked at her sadly. "You are dismissed."

She ignored the looks of apology and stormed from the room. She rushed out, storming passed Sides and Sunny who were waiting outside of the office for her. Their voices called for her to come back but she ignored them and continued towards her shared quarters with her opiluck. Right now she needed silence and solitude, not false comfort. Sides and Sunny were happy that she was being confined to the base! She didn't want their comfort when they were pleased with the situation that was making her miserable already!

When she arrived at her quarters she locked the door to the living room and stormed into the berth room where her berth was pressed against her opi's and the wall. She jumped up onto it and slammed her fist into it repeatedly while she listened to the twins beat on her door. No way was she opening it for them!

For some reason she just could not believe that the sole reason that they were confining her to base was because the cons could fool her panels. Part of it had to have been because she had fallen into a memory loop during the mission. They had to have been questioning her mental strength and thus her ability to be an asset or a liability in the field. Obviously she was just a liability.

And that thought hurt. All that training and drive for success was for nothing, because she was not going to be seeing the outside world for a long time she was sure of it. Her morose thoughts consumed her completely making her optics well up with energon. She hated that she wanted to cry like a weak little sparkling! In her processor it only proved that they were right to ground her and lock away the key!

At the same time she...grudgingly understood their decision. She could only hinder her allies in the field like this. She clenched her servo into the berth and squeezed the dense metal until she dented the berth top in the shape of her small servo.

A ping on her HUD fuelled her increasingly volatile mood. She ignored it until another one popped up, then another, and another... And it kept going like this until she practically ripped the messages open in aggravation.

**'Let us in.'**

**'Sweetspark open the door!'**

**'Don't make me break the damn door down baby!'**

**'Sweetspark Sunny is going to shoot the door panel and break in if you don't open it!'**

**'Open the fragging door!'**

She growled and opened the bond suddenly allowing her anger and aggravation to infest it. **{I have to go to the med bay soon! Until then I want to be alone! Go the frag away!}** And then she slammed the bond shut before they could respond.

Her antennas picked up their frustration briefly before she powered them down. She buried her helm into the surface of her berth and vented out a shaky breath as she fought back the need to leak. It was harder than she wanted to admit when so much hurt was consuming her spark.

She sniffled and prodded at her bond with her opiluck silently willing him to open it. It immediately opened as his consciousness slipped into her own. _**:Opi? Are you busy?:**_

_**:No. Do you need me?:**_

For a moment she hesitated to say yes, to do so was to admit that she was weak. But she knew that the thoughts plaguing her would not absolve themselves. She guessed that she just did not want to look so weak in front of the twins, but it apparently did not carry over to her opiluck. _**:Yes.:**_

_**:I will be there in a few kliks my spark.:**_

_**:Ok.:** _She slumped back into the berth and waited all while ignoring the increasingly incessant pounding on the door to her opi's quarters.

A loud screeching sound suddenly invaded her audio receptors making her jolt up on the berth. They wouldn't! She jumped off of the berth and raced out into the living room just in time to see Sunny and Sides completely rip the doors off their track.

They slammed their shoulders into them further preventing them from sliding shut by ripping a portion of the top out of the track as well. She just gaped at them as they forced their way into her quarters. An unintelligent spluttering sound escaped her vocaliser as she desperately tried to form words to speak to them. All while they vented heavily and stared her down. "WHAT THE FRAG DID YOU DO TO MY DOOR?! IT'S TOTALLY BENT! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT? OPI'S GOING TO MURDER YOU!" She let her helm fall into her servos despondently. Oh why? Must this day get any worse?

With a soft sigh she pushed her way passed the two to assess the damage done to the door, a grimace making it's way to her face when she realized quite suddenly that the entire door, frame, control box, and all had to be replaced. It looked like Sunny had shoved his sword into the control box...or maybe Sides had done it. Whatever the case they no longer had a door...

After a moment of just glaring at the now murdered door she spun around and growled at the two idiots that she loved. "What the frag did you do that for?! Can you not respect boundaries?!" She threw her arms into the air and paced back and forth in the doorway.

"You wouldn't let us in." Sunny said as if that explained everything. He didn't even have the decency to look repentant for destroying her door!

Another loud growl shook her chassis squeezing into a threatening hissing sound as it forced it's way between her clenched denta. "Sunny...get out! Both of you get out of my quarters!"

Sides at least had the decency to look somewhat apologetic. "Sweetspark we were worried about you. You were really upset and you wouldn't respond to us." He peered over her shoulder and grimaced at the door frame. "And well...our Gladiator programming kicked on and...yeah the door was in the way."

"Sometimes that can be really frustrating you know? What are you going to say to opi? Cause he's coming here right now and he's going to glitch when he sees what you did to the door."

Sunny crossed his arms across his chassis and adamantly refused to move. "Let him come. I don't care as long as we can see you!" He finally moved only to cross the distance between them so that he could pull her into his arms. "I know that you're upset about being forced to stay on base baby, but contrary to what you might think it's not a punishment. You didn't do anything wrong."

"No of course not! I just glitched out in the field almost getting myself and Sides killed." Her words came out dripping with every ounce of anger and frustration she was feeling. She felt him stiffen in response his hold on her tightening.

A second body was pressed against her's as the bond prickled with their desire to get in her helm. "There's no need to feel guilty of anything sweetspark. I was hurt before anything even happened with you, and I don't blame you for it. We can't always control what happens in the field love." Sides stroked her door wings gently in an attempt to comfort her.

With as exasperated sigh she shrugged herself free of their hold when she sensed opi approaching their quarters. She turned and stood beside both of the twins with her arms crossed over her chassis at the same moment that her creator stepped into the ruined remains of his door. And just as she expected his face twisted into a snarl of sheer rage.

"What the slag happened to my door?!" Opi snarled when his optics landed on the twins. He suddenly launched two wrenched at their helms like plasma bullets, resulting in two sharp yells of pain as they tools bounced off of both of their helms.

Sides actually cowered behind her, pointless since he was much larger than her. He still gave hiding behind her his best effort regardless of the scathing look he received from Sunny.

"You two are going to be reformatted into toasters if you don't fix my door!" Opi snarled as he stalked into the room like a rabid cyber animal. He yanked her away from Sides gesturing to the door. "Now get to it and do not disturb us! My sparkling has need of her opiluck!"

With that she was dragged down the hallway to their berthroom while the twins stared after her longingly. They disappeared from her sight when she was tugged into the room the door shutting after them with a dull thud. She was led over to their berths and ushered onto them.

"So do you want to talk about what has you so upset my spark?" Opi encouraged her as his frame settled onto the berth next to her.

"You have to know already." She whispered despondently. There was no way that Optimus and Uncle Prowl had not informed her opi that she was now strictly on med bay duty unless she was needed anywhere else on base. The first thing that they would have done is run it by him.

He hummed thoughtfully. "Yes I do know why you are upset. But I would like to know what about this situation truly bothers you? Does the thought of working with your opiluck all day really bother you that much?"

She jumped in surprise helm whipping in his direction. "NO! That's not it at all!" Her shoulders slumped when her spark pulsed again in sadness and self deprecation. "It's just... How can I prove that I'm not an incompetent sparkling if I'm confined to the base like this? How can I redeem myself after my first mission if it's also my last? I feel like I'm being punished or something no matter what anybot else says."

Another soft thoughtful hum. "I can see how a young bot like you would think that my spark, but that is not the case. With Megatron pursuing you it is not safe to let you leave the base sweetling. Pit I do not even know if it can be considered truly safe for you to be confined to base. If Megatron truly wants you badly enough little can stop him."

That thought did not sit well with her. Still she was depressed and guilty over what she still saw as her failure on the last mission.

"You are safest here. Prowl and Optimus just want to protect you, not because you are too weak to protect yourself, but for the simple fact that numbers and experience can overcome. Especially a young femme who does not have many millenia of battle experience like the rest of us. They are worried and rightly so."

Her frame slumped in acknowledgement. "Right. I understand." Even if she didn't want to accept or understand it. She had to be logical so as to understand even if it hurt to do so. They were just worried about her...and as her opi had said, rightly so. That did not make her feel any better really...maybe just a little bit. Not enough to make a real difference.

Her opi placed a servo on her shoulder so that he could pull her into a hug. He kissed the top of her helm and rubbed soothing circles onto her back. "This is not permanent. As soon as Wheeljack discovers a way to even the playing field you will be allowed to go out on missions again." Here he paused and patted her back. "Not that I want to see you put into dangerous situations my spark, but I also know that you have a fire in you that cannot be tamed. When you want to do something you let little to nothing stop you. I have no doubt that soon enough you will make a name for yourself in our ranks."

Her spark perked up a little as a small smile tugged at her lips. "First I have to be allowed to go out into the field. But for now I'm grounded." She joked.

"We've all been grounded every now and then. Just ask Bee. As the youngest, well before you of course!" A warm affectionate look was directed at her. "He was often times confined to base for his own good so that he could be put into battle situations as little as possible. Ironhide and Optimus wanted to keep him safe even though the confinement drove him up the wall."

"They grounded Bee too?"

"Yes they did, many times in fact." He patted her shoulder comfortingly. "But the point is that he got over it and proved himself just as you will."

"Thanks opi." She hugged him back thankful for his presence in her life. Never would she ever regret him for any reason. He was her opiluck, her real opiluck whom she loved with all her spark was capable of.

"You are welcome my spark. Now I do need to be getting back to the med bay soon. First Aid will be off in two hours and then I need you to come in."

"Ok." She murmured quietly. He pulled away from her reluctantly after pressing a soft kiss to her helm.

"Two hours." Opi reminded her as he stepped down from the berth and started towards the door. "And do not let the twins infect you with their stupid!" He warned her before slipping from the room.

There was literally one klik between the time that he disappeared, to the exact moment that the twins came barreling into her berthroom, each sporting another dent to their helms. For a moment she just stared at them feeling guilty for the way she had treated them. Just because she was angry at Optimus and Uncle Prowl did not mean that she had the right to treat her mate-to-bes as she had.

With a fluid grace that only spybots had she jumped from the berth and made her way towards them. "Opi got you again huh?" She joked in a somewhat strained tone. Sure she was feeling a little bit better but...the situation was still frustrating.

Sides grinned sheepishly at her. "Yeah he did. He's uh...real mad about the door."

A small giggle escaped her vocaliser. "Did you really expect him to be happy about it?"

"Well no but..." Sides trailed off.

"Are you feeling better?" Sunny interjected quietly.

"Yeah a bit. The boredom is going to drive me crazy but...if it comes down to it I can always prank Skids and Mudflap to entertain myself."

Sides grinned again before pulling her into him. "That's the spirit! Weld them to the ceiling femme!"

Her mouth was overtaken by his before she could respond eliciting a surprised squeak from her. Really you would think that she would leave her panels on all day long to avoid being taken by surprise with these two, but noooo she had to think logically! Conserve energy! Pffft!

Not that their kisses were a bad thing. The way that he nipped at her lower component then snaked his glossa in when she moaned softly could never be considered anything less than heavenly. And the way he tasted always entranced her. He was sweet but not too much which suited her just fine. And his glossa expertly slid around her's coaxing it to respond with well practiced movements that had her panting heavily.

A fire started up in her spark chamber and port making her moan softly with need. "Sides... I- I'm not sure about this." She managed to get out in a breathy tone when he switched to her neck cables and nipped at them. Truthfully she was not scared anymore, well not the same way that she had been. Some part of her still viewed situations like this with trepidation though it was nowhere near as strong as it had been.

"Sure about what? Kissing? Or something else?"

"The last one." She whimpered after a particularly sharp nip to a more sensitive cable. Sunny quickly joined in by forcing his mouth onto her's thrusting his glossa into her oral cavity. Her vents hitched in surprise as a breathy mewl escaped from her vocaliser. Her spark sped up in equal parts pleasure and trepidation...just because she had experienced interface once did not mean that she was completely comfortable with it. She did want it, but she also held nervousness for the event. Some part of her wondered if she always would or if it would pass?

Before she could think on it too hard they released her suddenly, both of them looking slightly sheepish. "Sorry sweetspark." Sides kissed her lightly once in apology. "For pushing you and all." He said as a way of explaining.

"No it's ok. I just..." She looked down at the floor and shivered as images of her memory of the rape reared it's ugly face. Their interface may have made her feel better, but it had not completely eased the pain or humiliation over the memory. For that reason she was still hesitant...

A digit gently lifted her helm up. "We would never force you or harm you. Surely you know that by now?" Sunny reassured her as he stroked her face gently.

"I know...but for some reason I still hesitate."

"Which is ok." He reassured her. "We understand."

The way that they were always so understanding of her warmed her spark making her playful side rouse from whatever hole she had shoved it in. A blush crept up onto her cheek plates at the same time that her mouth tilted up into a shy smile. "Besides...there probably isn't enough time for it anyways. And my opi might get angry if he comes back and smells it all over the room."

A million retorts looked like they wanted to burst from Sides' mouth at that last comment. He wisely kept quiet however well as quiet as he could be. "So when do you have to go to the med bay?"

"In two hours. Until then I don't have anything to do really..." She trailed off in a sulky tone. At least they had never said that she could not train during the time that she was grounded. That thought made her perk up slightly wings twitching in a somewhat excited jerking motion. "Do you guys want to spar until then or something?"

"Do you have to ask?" Sides grinned and tugged on her servo practically sprinting out the door.

Well at least they were eager to help her train still, this way she would not get too rusty. When she was allowed back out onto the field she would be ready.

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

Later that night he and Sides were on their way to the med bay to pick Red up from her shift with Ratchet. It had been a boring and uneventful day after she had left them to work with her opiluck, even Sides had not been able to entertain himself.

Hopefully they could get her back to their quarters sooner rather than later so that they could, well do whatever she wanted. Regardless of what they said about waiting until she was ready, they still wanted her desperately. That being said they were dead serious about everything they had told her about her comfort being the most important.

Strange really when he thought about it. Before he had met her he had only used femmes until they had thoroughly sated his frame before tossing them aside. Even Sides had been like that, though he was usually nice enough to tell the femme up front that he only wanted a nice frag, whereas he just told them afterwards that he was only interested in the frag.

And then there was Limelight... He and Sides had made a huge mistake keeping her around with the false story of courting her just to keep her in their berth because she was such a good frag. And now she was on base with them again, probably plotting some stupid scheme to hurt their sparkmate to get back at them. She was a vindictive femme like that.

He grunted before turning the corner to the corridor where the med bay was and approaching the door. Once he stood before it he activated the track so that the doors slid open. Confusion welled up in his spark when his optics landed solely on Ratchet sitting hunched over his datapads... No Red. "Ratchet?"

The CMO's helm snapped over in their direction in surprise. "Lilydancer is not with you? She left the med bay almost two breems ago."

"No. We were here to get her actually." He looked at Sides from the corner of his optic seeing a look of confusion on his twin's face. "Any idea where she went?"

"No. I assume that your bond is still dampened as well?"

"You know that Lily likes to do that so that she can concentrate." Sides answered quietly.

Ratchet pursed his mouth components and shrugged. "Well she isn't here. Tell her that I want to see her first thing in the morning when you find her. And please do find her before I have to send a search party out." He added in a completely serious and threatening tone.

"Can do Hatchet." Sides saluted him as they turned and made their way out from the med bay.

Well she had been anywhere in the direction that they had come from so...she had to be in the opposite direction. Maybe... So they took a right outside the med bay doors then another right towards the rec room. She may have needed to refuel after her shift.

They started in that direction in complete silence. Red had said that she was going to wait for them, so for her to not keep to her word was odd. Then again as he had said previously she could have needed to refuel badly, she did have a tendency to forget about having energon unless they reminded her.

As they drew closer his audio receptors picked up the sound of two voices talking, one that he recognized as Red. The other was obviously a mech and he sounded familiar to him. He strained himself more to try and figure out who it was...even as his protective programming threatened to come online.

"Look I don't know what you want Demetri...but I promised the twins that I would not talk to you anymore. It's not because of anything that I remember you doing, it's just that I love them and they asked this of me. I am sorry about it but I can't change it."

He bared his denta and snarled. So that fragger was trying to speak to her without them finding out? Big mistake! HUGE! By now they were standing just outside of the rec room poised to go rushing in to start a brawl the likes of which the base had never seen, when the slagger started talking back.

"They do not want me speaking to you because I have feelings for you. That is hardly fair is it? Have I ever done anything to you that upset or hurt you?"

"Well no but...I respect their wishes."

"Oh? And do they respect your's? As their intended do they treat you as well as they should?" There was an increasingly rough tone to Demetri's voice that was hinting at anger.

It made them tense, only their sparkmate's voice stopping them from rushing in.

"Yes! They treat me perfectly! No they treat me better than perfect!" Red shot back in a frustrated tone. "I understand Demetri! Really I do! You feel something for me but it can't ever work out! I don't feel the same for you! Even if the twins and I were not together I would feel nothing for you! My spark does not want you!"

"You only think that because they want you to think that!" Demetri suddenly shouted followed by the sound of a loud crash and a squeak of surprise.

He practically sprinted into the room in time to see that fragger grab their sparkmate by the throat and pin her against the wall. A swell of sheer rage forced his Gladiator programming online with a resounding mental snap. He roared and lunged without a thought, intent on finally offlining this slagger once and for all!

His frame slammed into the piece of scrap metal ripping him away from the much smaller form of THEIR sparkmate. They slammed into the ground a good distance away where he promptly started tearing into the miserable slagger's armor without remorse.

In a flash Sides was beside him joining in by taking his servos to the fragger's face plates repeatedly. Resounding clangs rang out in the room each time that the softer metal was dented under Sides' servos, and his twin was far beyond any feelings of remorse.

"SUNNY! SIDES! STOP IT!"

Something latched onto him from behind and clung to him, but he was too busy ripping the slagger's chassis open to look and see what it was. By now the pathetic piece of scrap metal was barely even online, and if he had his way the fragger wouldn't be for long.

"Please Sunny... Please Sides..."

He automatically froze as feelings of desperation and fear invaded his spark causing his protective programming to suddenly deactivate. All he could see were petit purple arms wrapped around his neck, Demetri laying torn and barely online beneath him, and Sides covered in the slagger's energon before him.

His twin was staring at something over his shoulder with a look of horror and regret. "Oh Primus Lily...we're so sorry that you had to see that."

The grip on his neck loosened somewhat as a soft mix between a sigh and a whimper sounded from her. She let go of him and sidestepped around him to tend to Demetri's wounds without ever once looking at them. "I commed opi he's on his way." She said while she worked on stopping Demetri from leaking to death.

"Baby I'm so sorry that you witnessed that... I just saw him choking you and I lost it. Please understand Red, our programm-!"

"I know Sunny. I understand." She murmured quietly. "This isn't your fault, it's mine." With that she went silent while she worked quickly and efficiently to save the slagger's life.

Ratchet came in not even two kliks later with First Aid flanking him. Surprisingly there was no Prowl or Optimus with him. He pushed his way passed them and ordered First Aid to pick Demetri up and take him to the med bay. While the red and white mech was doing that Ratchet turned to all of them and raised an optic ridge. "Well? Care to explain what this was all about?"

"Gladiator programming." Both Sides and him muttered at the same time.

"Slagging idiots." Ratchet growled. "The only reason that I did not report this to Prowl immediately was because it was Demetri, and I figured he had done something stupid to incite your protective programming. I will have to report this to him in the morning however, for now return to your quarters. And do be careful not to frighten my sparkling anymore tonight?" That last bit was uttered in a completely threatening tone.

He nodded once reaching out to grab Red so that he could pull her to her pedes. Together Sides, Red, and him left the rec room and started towards him and his twin's room. The entire walk was filled with silence so thick that it felt like he was suffocating. Red refused to look at either of them during the entire walk keeping her helm bowed the entire time.

When they reached the room and led her inside she broke off and sauntered over to plop down onto the couch where she promptly buried her helm in her servos as her door wings drooped.

"Baby we...well we're not sorry for what we did but..." He made his way over to the couch and sat down beside her wrapping an arm around her shoulders gently. "We are sorry for upsetting you. I mean we never meant for you to see that... I just saw him with his servo wrapped around your throat and I couldn't control my programming."

"It's not your fault." She repeated what she had said earlier. "You asked me not to talk to him or spend time with him but I did it anyways. He came to the med bay when I got out and asked if we could talk, and since he has caused trouble in the past I wanted to explain everything to him."

Sides plopped down on her other side wearing a small frown. "Sweetspark you only had good intentions. You didn't ignore our wishes out of spite or defiance, you only wanted to try and gently let him down. And while we are not particularly pleased that you went off with him anyways...we understand it." His twin eased a servo under her chin and tilted her helm up towards him. "Just please...if he lives don't do it again for any reason."

"Promise." When she said that she made sure to look between the two of them as she filled their bond with more silent promises to respect their wishes. She curled into his chassis with a soft coo grimacing at the energon smeared over his chassis. "You're covered in energon."

"And now you are too." He pointed out gruffly.

She frowned down at her energon covered chassis and arms. "Wash racks..."

"Should be empty at this time of night."

Sides gave him a wicked grin over the top of Red's helm. **'Empty wash racks...nobot on base is up...'**

He helped their sparkmate up after shooting his twin a small glare. They had reiterated their promise not to pressure her not even eight hours ago and he was already making innuendos!

Sides only shrugged not looking the least bit sorry for what he had said.

With a sigh he turned and led Red down the corridor to the wash racks. Thankfully they were close to their quarters only being a kilks walk away.

He stopped in front of the femme wash racks which was situated right next to the mech wash racks and gave their mate's servo a soft squeeze. "We'll be out here when you get done." They separated so that he could turn and make his way to the next door, only he didn't get more than two steps before a small servo grabbed a hold of his arm. Surprise made him turn towards her in time to see her open the door to the femme racks and grab Sides so that she could pull them both in.

They shared a look with one another before following after her... What strange thoughts were swirling around in their femme's helm right now?

He guessed that only time would tell...sooner rather than later.

* * *

><p>Cliffy! So tell me if you want me to pick up after the last line and write a lemon! I was so tempted to just do it for this chapter but...I wasn't sure about doing it. Or the shower could be all innocent and slag...yeah right. Even if I skip it something will probably happen. Anyways R&amp;R!<p> 


	47. Chapter 47

So I might close down the vote soon guys! If you haven't voted yet and still want to please do so soon! So far Bluestreak is winning! Maybe it will change, maybe it won't! Only the voters can decide that! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! Lemon alert!

* * *

><p>She was nervous as she led the two mechs into the wash racks after shutting and locking the doors. For some reason despite all of the nervousness she felt she still wanted to try and do this. She loved them with all of her spark, and she wanted to be able to do these things for them without fear or worry.<p>

She led the two of them over to a faucet and released them so that she could step over to it and turn it on hot, using her servo to test the temperature of the steaming water. Once she found that it was satisfactory she released her armor from it's catches and allowed it to pool at her pedes.

Her frame tensed as she vented heavily in embarrassment with her back turned to them and stepped under the very warm spray. For a moment she just let her helm fall back as the hot water cascaded down her frame in a waterfall of liquid warmth, just the way that she liked her showers. It felt so good that she was almost tempted to forget about why she had dragged those two into the wash racks in the first place... Good thing that she didn't.

With as much trepidation as any femme who was new to intimacy, she turned to them and offered a servo in a beckoning motion. She was sure that she was blushing...and not looking at all coy or seductive, but there was little that she could do to change that.

They did not look like they minded anyways. their lust clouded optics only drifted over her frame taking it all in as they too shed their armors and stepped into the spray with her. Sunny boxed her in from the front as Sides got up behind her and ran his servos up her hips and sides. Sunny let his servos drift up over her abdomen and chassis languidly making her moan softly.

The steam seemed to encase them as the heat in the room steadily rose, the soft pattering of water drops sufficiently covering her soft sighs as they explored her frame at their own leisure. Just like last time they used their bond to ensure that her processor stayed focused on them and nothing else, and she practically melted into the gentle touches and soft kisses they bestowed her with.

Sunny put his lips on her's forcefully, snaking his glossa into her mouth as he squeezed her aft in his large servos making her release a startled squeak. His servos drifted around to her front and prodded at her port as Sides started caressing her door wings with glossa and denta eliciting another startled gasp from her. It cut off into a choked off cry when Sunny gently slid a digit into her port. She clutched at his shoulders and shyly ground her hips into his probing digit, vents coming out more heavily from the pleasurable sensation it evoked in her. Always like a beautiful raging inferno eating her away from the inside out, in the most pleasurable way.

And then he was moving that digit in and out of her port making her moan loudly, her internal walls quivering around the intruding object making her mech groan and add a second digit. She squealed in surprise and pleasure when it gently slid into her joining it's twin in the rapid pace that Sunny had set.

She separated from his mouth at the same time that a rather loud cry escaped her vocaliser, and dragged his helm down to her chassis. He took her hint and dragged his glossa over the exposed protoform, teasing the seams and wires like a practiced adept. Another soft shuddering moan, followed by another, and another, and another... There seemed to be no end to the incredible way they were making her feel! Jolt after jolt of electrical current flowed from her door wings and port, to her spark chamber as both port and chamber tightened up with that incredible pressure that signalled overload.

She gyrated her hips back faster, almost desperately trying to get that overload to overcome her. Her port quivering in response clutching at the digits forcing their way in over and over again, she cried out and beat her servos on the back of Sunny's helm when it eluded her once more. It just wasn't enough for her! Her more wanton side wanted him in her, and at this point no bad vid file, no memory of the past, nothing would stop her from pursuing that.

With a sharp tug she yanked his helm back up at the same time that she reached down and forced his digits to stop moving. At his confused and slightly irritated look she whimpered out a soft, "Please?"

Both of them stilled as a soft whispering filled her helm signalling that they were using the twin bond to communicate and were blocking her out. For a moment she felt immensely irritated that they were in fact forcing her out, but it died down when Sunny turned her and pinned her chassis to chassis with Sides, whom backed up and leaned himself against the wall. She cooed softly in confusion, the sound rising into a loud surprised squeak when she felt Sunny's rod press itself against her port.

And then he was pushing his way in...and it felt so fragging amazing that she saw stars momentarily. A loud moan bounced off of the walls of the shower racks followed by a heated snarl from her mech as he painstakingly forged his way into her inch by inch until his hips came up to rest against the backs of her thighs. She panted heavily, squirming against him as lubricant dripped down her thighs.

Sides used his servos to steady her against him when Sunny finally started thrusting into her, the movement causing her external node to slide over Sides' own interface rod. His lips slammed down on her's as he thrust himself over the node making her cry out, the sensation intensifying the feeling of Sunny thrusting into her rapidly.

It was almost making her delirious with pleasure every time they lit the nodes on fire simultaneously. All she could do was hold onto Sides' shoulders and kiss him senseless while Sunny fragged her, his large chassis pressed flush against her back tickling her door wings and adding to the already overwhelming sensations she was feeling. She could barely even keep her optics online! And from the way that she was screaming into Sides' mouth she worried that she might damage her vocaliser.

But there was no time to contemplate trying to stop or quiet down as her already oversensitive port clenched with her first overload of the night. She released Sides and cried out as her spark chamber and port exploded with the most amazing feeling! Even better than the last time they had interfaced with her! Her optics went dim as her frame tried to slam back into Sunny in order to make him draw out the sensations longer. It felt like a thousand bolts of electricity were shooting straight through every node in her frame resulting in the most pleasurable sensation that it was possible to feel.

And Sunny only forced his way into her faster in response to draw it out, though she could tell from their bond that he was not nearly done with her yet. So when her overload finally did die down she felt herself tingle with excitement when he never faltered or slowed down.

"Oh yeah baby..." He grunted after a particularly sharp thrust. "This isn't even half of my skills."

For a while she lost track of time and the number of overloads he forced her into, all while she was a screaming mass of wires pinned to his twin's chassis. Her frame didn't even feel solid anymore from how thoroughly he was lavishing her...and she thought that it would never end.

But just when he sent her screaming into yet another overload she felt him stiffen and jerk as his absolute ecstasy washed through the bond. A loud snarl shook her frame as he rammed himself into her repeatedly spilling his essence into her. She shuddered releasing a breathy moan when the heat of it warmed her already hot frame.

She whimpered when he suddenly withdrew from her frame leaving her feeling incredibly empty, at least until Sides laid her down on the floor of the wash racks underneath the still hot spray of water. Her optics locked on his lustful ones as his servos gently spread her thighs apart completely so that his rod could come to rest against her port.

There was a gentleness when he pushed his way into her that made her spark ache. He caressed her through both bond and touch as he slowly thrust into her long and deep, filling her spark with his love and affection with each thrust making energon tears well up in her optics.

This felt every bit as good as what Sunny had done for her, yet in a completely different way. The physical gratification was there with each time he forced his way into her port, but it was the way that his love for her bled into her over and over again that really felt amazing. It made her question every fear or concern she had ever felt in regards to them when Sunny joined in and started channeling his love and adoration into her as well.

She choked out a half sob half pleasure filled cry and clutched at her Sideswipe. "I love you."

"And we love you." Sides purred in her audio receptor.

"That includes me! I love you too baby."

The tears spilled down over her cheek arches as she arched and thrust her hips back into Sides' own, filling her side of the bond with all of the emotion she could muster. Sides groaned and kissed her as he loved her for all that he was worth, whispering sweet nothings into her through their bond.

It was like slow fire that built up in her, but much more intense. She felt like she was going to simply float away the more time went by and the closer she got to another overload. It was like their sparks were all connected and she vaguely wondered how that was possible, and how it felt so good anyways. But when Sides started thrusting almost desperately, yet still somehow managing to keep his loving pace, she forgot about it. He was rapidly forcing her towards her next release and his seemed to not be far behind.

A thrill of excitement tore through her when his face twisted into the most pleasure filled expression she had ever seen, slightly gaping mouth, and bright almost delirious looking optics. Her port clenched, overload suddenly tearing through her yanking another startled cry from her mouth. She felt him force his way into her faster as his rod suddenly thickened in pre overload. And then he jerked into her hard making her cry out again mid overload as he spilled inside her with a loud shout of her designation.

The warmth filled her leaving her feeling full, tired, and extremely happy. A soft coo worked itself free from her when she gently started caressing Sides' helm adoringly.

He lifted it and gave her a genuine smile before kissing her softly.

After another few moments of that he drew back so that he and Sunny could clean her frame, servos teasing every pleasure spot she had while she stood there with a goofy grin on her mouth components. She joined in with assisting to clean them as soon as they had finished, albeit reluctantly, with her.

Her servos washed away all the cleaner and grime dipping into the breaks in their protoforms to get all of it, and she could tell that they liked it from the shuddering vents leaving them. But she kept it strictly teasing, for the base morning shift would be rousing soon and the last thing that she needed was to be seen exiting the femme wash racks with the twins...

With great reluctance she retrieved her armor and snapped it back on prompting the other two to do the same, an action that they did not look particularly pleased about. Or maybe it was that they were not happy that she had put her armor on thus blocking her frame from their sight. It only took one little look inside of their helms to see that it was indeed the latter, this prompting her to smack them both on the back of the helms in reprimand. "Perverts." She giggled, grabbed their servos, and led them from the wash racks towards their quarters.

Sides patted her aft and gave it a squeeze. "Says the femme who dragged two mechs into the femme wash racks." He teased her.

She pursed her mouth as they entered their shared room, he really was pushing his luck. "Sides..." Her low warning growl filled the room. It only seemed to fuel his teasing mood from what she could sense through their bond. Well what to do to make him behave? Luckily for her she knew exactly how loving he liked to be so... "If you don't behave I won't cuddle you while you recharge anymore!"

A sharp indignant gasp was the first response to that briefly followed by Sides wrapping his arms around her almost desperately. "You wouldn't do that to me sweetspark!"

Keeping her facial expression as stern and serious as possible she nodded. "Oh yes I would. Keep being a bad mech and I will only cuddle Sunny at night."

Sides pouted at her despondently, looking for all the world like she had kicked his petropuppy. He squeezed her tighter to him and kept the expression going in the hopes that it would win her over, even going so far as to jut his lower lip component out.

She raised an optic ridge at him and shook her helm no. "Not working Sides. I guess you better behave huh?"

He sighed dejectedly and nodded as his expression fell more. "Ok. No more teasing tonight." His expression perked up suddenly in a complete turn around. "That means that I can cuddle you tonight!"

A surprised squeak was her only response when he picked her up and tossed her gently onto the berth before caging her in from the front while Sunny caged her in from the back. She cuddled down into the berth while their warmth wafted into her heating her frame, their arms wrapping around every part of her body that they could reach. And she was very comfortable...and tired. Their little escapade had really taken it out of her.

Recharge took her surprisingly fast...filling her with vid files of their time together. Hopefully things would only get better.

* * *

><p>Almost a month went by with little of interest happening. She worked in the med bay or trained with the twins or somebot else on base, or pranked somebot on base when she got too bored... All in all life was pretty normal for her.<p>

And then she started feeling strange. By strange she meant that she was always tired no matter how much recharge she got. She fell into recharge working with her opi, or immediately after training, sometimes when she was refueling. That was only the start of things!

Only days after she had started having that issue a simmering unease in her tanks had begun to pop up periodically. The urge to purge had become a very real part of her life day after day. She was unsure as to why all of these things were happening, what she did know was that her opi and her twins were becoming worried about her.

So worried that the twins had stopped engaging her in the berth even when she tried to instigate it. Whenever it happened they just cuddled her while refusing to touch anywhere that was even remotely inappropriate, and it was slagging her off!

And her spark chamber had been somewhat sore lately. None of them had noticed it yet, but she had to deal with the soreness on a daily basis. It was not quite as annoying as the nausea was however, so she mostly ignored it so that she could focus on other things. Not smart she knew, but there was just too much to do to worry about a little discomfort...

At least that was what she had told herself every day preceeding this one... She had woken up relatively early due to a horrible unease in her tanks and chassis, and not wanting to wake the twins up she just laid there and dealt with it. For as long as she could anyways... Until it felt like purge was going to come shooting out of her mouth at any astrosecond.

Then she was forced to jump up out of the berth, knocking into Sides in the process as she tripped over him. She did not even make it to the door before she doubled over and emptied her tanks all over the floor, tanks screeching as they expelled everything she had to offer.

The sound of rapid pede steps rushing over assaulted her audio receptors before one of them was holding her wires back and rubbing her back struts. She could hear them asking her if she was ok, if she had hurt herself, things like that. Yet she was too busy trying to decide if she was going to purge again to answer them.

She gagged again empty tanks hurting, yet somehow she started feeling a lot better afterwards. Not great, but better.

And now she could make out the frantic words being spewed right beside her audio receptors. "I'm fine Sunny." She answered him when he asked for the millionth time if she was ok.

He grabbed her helm and turned it forcefully in his direction. "You're not ok! You just purged all over the place! We're going to see Ratchet right now!"

Before she could protest that she was fine Sides had swept her into his arms and exited the room. Sunny walked briskly beside his twin keeping his optics locked on her face the entire time. It was rather unsettling, but there was little that she could do to stop him when she was exhausted and ill. Perhaps she had caught a virus? As unlikely as that was.

They arrived at the med bay sooner than she had expected, the twins ushering her in and placing her on a berth while her opi jumped up from his desk and rushed over to her. "Sweetling? What happened?"

Sunny decided to answer for her. "She has been acting strange lately, and then this morning she just starts purging her tanks all over the floor!"

"Is she going to be ok Hatchet?" Sides looked like he was ready to panic.

"Hmmm let me scan her." Opi muttered as he started running scans over her frame while she laid there completely limp and exhausted. He ran several scans over her in the course of a breem or so, but apparently none of them contained what he was looking for. "It couldn't be..." He muttered under his breath at the same time that he started up another scan.

He got to her chassis...and immediately tensed. A sharp startled sound of, well she couldn't really tell what it was, and his emotions were too chaotic to read. His face morphed into an expression of wonder and aggravation...then he opened his mouth and said the most unexpected sentence she had ever heard. "Lilydancer you're carrying."

Her spark seemed to stop at the moment that her world came crashing down on her. Sparked? She was carrying? But she had only just started interfacing! How could it have happened so soon? And before they were even bonded?

"Carrying?"

She looked over to the two mechs who had uttered that word at the same time. Both of them were staring at her in wonder and adoration, obviously they were happy about this. Well she did not really know what to think at this point... One of her servos came to rest at her chassis directly over her spark chamber as she tilted her helm down at it.

A large green servo was laid over her's causing her to look up at her opiluck. "I need you to open your sparkchamber for me my spark."

With a distracted nod she drew her chest plates back allowing them to look into her sparkchamber. Yes them. Sides and Sunny were now right beside her so that they too could peer into her sparkchamber. She really could not see herself, but whatever was in there seemed to make her intended mates very happy because they suddenly enveloped her in a tight hug.

While they were doing that a message popped up on her HUD from her opi. She opened it and stared in wonder at the picture contained within of two small sparks joined both to each other, and to her spark. They were so tiny compared to her's!

And opi...well he seemed happy as well, there was some underlying emotion of nervousness that he was feeling, but she shrugged it off as nervousness about being a grandsire. A soft smile was playing at his mouth components as he stared at her open sparkchamber. "Well Lilydancer as much as I want to offline Sideswipe and Sunstreaker I can't, because my grand creations need their creator's sparks near by to strengthen them. As for you, you should not strain yourself! That means no more training or missions! I will inform the other bots on base of your condition as soon as you leave here."

"What should I expect from being sparked?" She asked quietly, the twins were a purring mass of metal just wrapped around her.

"Well feeling unease in the tanks is perfectly normal for this stage, it is your frame's way of dealing with the strain of additional sparks. It is also caused by your internal systems readying themselves to gestate the sparks. So expect some fatigue, nausea, and some mood swings probably, and do not be worried if your spark chamber is a little sore because that is normal too."

"Ok. So what am I not allowed to do exactly?" She hoped that he got the hint and understood exactly what she was implying...because if she had to say it out loud...

But he seemed to get it if the somewhat disgruntled look on his face was anything to go by. "Interfacing is perfectly safe, and in fact sparked femmes crave it constantly."

Both twins looked up at her with identical smirks obviously pleased with that little piece of information.

"Actually I would like to talk to the twins outside for a moment if you do not mind my spark? I have some things that I wish to discuss with them."

Their attention drifted back to him, a nod being her only response. She laid back and got as comfortable as possible while the three left her alone in the room. Part of her really wanted to spy on them to see what they were talking about, and another part of her was sticking to her morals of letting other bots and people have their privacy. She stuck to the latter and let them speak without her peeking into their helms.

While she laid there she absently rubbed her sparkchamber in the hopes that maybe she could feel the two small sparks contained within. There was a slight thrumming of their energy, but it was weak, and if she had not been looking for it she would have missed it. She cooed softly to them and hummed an old Cybertronian lullaby that her opi used to hum for her when she was a sparkling. They pulsed again in response eliciting a pleased smile from her.

She kept humming to them for almost an entire breem, until the three mechs stepped back into the room. Then she stopped and looked at them all curiously. Each of them had a serious yet slightly worried look on their faces, the expression causing her spark to jump in nervousness.

Their helms instantly snapped in her direction when they sensed it, each of them rushing over to her berth in response. Sides and Sunny started fussing over her, while her opi ran several scans to see if something was wrong with her.

Of course he found nothing because there was nothing wrong with her. "What was that all about sweetling? Are you feeling any pain in your spark?"

"No. I'm fine." She reassured them all, though it did not get the twins to stop running their servos over her sparkchamber lovingly. Their earlier expression filtered through her processor making her spark pulse once more in distress, only this time it made her feel ill. With jerky movements she jumped up from the berth she was on and raced over to the nearest trash bin to empty the contents of her tanks into it, or more like to try to but her tanks were mostly empty. She repeatedly gagged up trace amounts of energon as her tanks screeched loudly in protest from her trying to purge. It hurt like a mother slagging glitch!

Through all of this her intended mates rubbed her back and wings while talking to her in soft soothing tones meant to comfort her. For a brief moment all she wanted to do was just choke the slag out of both of them for doing this to her!

Their caresses faltered as amusement and a bit of trepidation came through their bond. "You hate us that much right now baby?"

"Well she is purging her tanks all over the place because of us Sunny."

She twitched in irritation and sent a mental shove at them through the bond. "Shut up!"

"Somebot woke up on the wrong side of the berth this morning." Sides joked.

She whirled around to face him and grabbed him by his audio horn so that she could jerk him into her face, where she offered him her very best glare. "Sideswipe if you want to live you will stop teasing me about being sick! If you don't I will not, and I repeat will not interface with you anymore! I have two mechs and that means that I can make due with one when I want to! I'm sure that Sunny won't mind taking the full brunt of my high charges from now on?"

"You wouldn't do that to me sweetspark!" Sides protested as he dropped down and hugged at her knees so that he was practically groveling on the floor. "I'm a better lover than Sunny is! Who was the one that made you overload six times in a row last week?"

"Both of you." She deadpanned while ignoring the grossed out faces that her opi was making. Yeah they had started this whole conversation while conveniently forgetting all about him.

"She's right Sides, I did make her overload the same amount of times as you did."

"Well I'll make her overload way more than you tonight Sunny!"

"Yeah right!"

The sibling rivalry argument started up again for the millionth time since she had started interfacing with these two! Their competitiveness was especially brutal in the berth with both mechs forcing her into stasis each night from how exhausted they made her. But something told her that it was soon going to be the exact opposite of them wearing her out...

"Could you three just leave the med bay if you are only going to clutter it up with your idiocy?"

She grimaced at the disgusted tone her opi used...maybe it was time to get out of the med bay, and she could use a little more recharge. With a sigh she stood up and yanked the arguing mechs up by their audios eliciting two startled yelps from them. "Come on you two! Let's go and recharge for a while."

"Sweetspark stop yanking at my audio!" Sides whined as she dragged them out of the med bay.

"Bye opi! See you later today!" She called out before tugging the two idiots out after her. She dragged them down the corridors despite their protesting and did not release them until they finally arrived back at their room.

As soon as she laid optics on the berth she practically dove into it and cuddled into the cool metal. Primus she was tired! Sides and Sunny laid down with her, both purring happily and nuzzling her. She snuggled back into Sides' chassis while she hugged Sunny around the waist. A soft content purr of her own started up in her chassis as she was lulled slowly into recharge.

Her last thoughts were of what her little sparklings would look like when they were born...

* * *

><p>(Sides' POV)<p>

When he roused later that morning it was roughly three hours after they had returned to their quarters after receiving the wonderful news that their sparkmate was carrying. Finally they had achieved what they had set out to achieve when she was still a hybrid!

But not all was good and happy after the revelation. Ratchet's earlier advice to either tell Lilydancer all of her past now, or wait until after she had the sparklings weighed heavily on his processor. The CMO had advised that now was a delicate stage in her pregnancy but that it only got worse from here and that as her mood swings picked up more things would stress her out more. So he had informed them that if they were going to tell her soon it should be sooner rather than later.

That ate at him, because he did not know how she would react to the knowledge that they had been lying to her this whole time about who and what she was. While it had only been done with the best of intentions to keep her safe and happy, it still did not entirely excuse it.

If it was him in her place and he had been told that everything he knew was a lie...he would be devastated. And the last thing that either he or Sunny wanted was for her to become so emotional and hurt that she lost the sparklings. So therein lay the problem of the day...

Tell her? Or don't tell her?

He reached out distractedly and pulled her into him causing her to coo softly in her recharge, the movement also woke Sunny from his recharge. "Morning Sunny."

Sunny grunted while tiredly rubbing at his face plates. "Thinking too hard again Sides?"

"I was thinking about what we should do...you know about what Ratchet said." He subconsciously squeezed her more tightly to his chassis and nuzzled her helm. She had given them sparklings! She was carrying their sparklings! He was so deliriously happy! More happy than he had ever been before! Except for maybe when they bonded to her, but the two were probably pretty close.

"We should probably tell her Sides...before she gets any further along. That way we aren't stressing her out later in her gestation." Sunny looked and felt torn about what he had said...

And for that matter he felt the same way. How would she react to learning that everything she knew about herself was not true? Well not exactly like that, but that she had been something else and had lived a different life before? Bits and pieces had come back to her in vid files, but it was not even a fraction of what had really happened to her! Would being told that she had been a hybrid, that she had been a breeding tool for the cons change her? Would she come to remember each sparkling that she had lost again? And how would that affect her now that she was carrying? No matter how much he tried to rationalize it...he could not decide. Sunny was right and he knew that, but he also thought that if they did not tell her until afterwards, that it would not strain her unduly now. The last thing that any of them wanted was for her to lose the sparklings.

But would it hurt her more to wait? And what if the vid files bothered her during her gestation? Would it be better for her to know so that she did not stress herself trying to figure it out?

He sighed, torn and confused... His spark was her's and she knew that. He would never leave her and she must also know that. They had spent the last month or so solidifying their love and devotion to her by spending as much quality time with her as possible, both out of the berth, and in it. She had to know that they were only ever interested in doing what was best for her. Had they not proven that enough?

"She knows Sides. The hurt might make her forget it for a time, but she knows us, and she knows that we would never intentionally hurt her or lie to her." Sunny's now bright optics met his as he conveyed his sureness that she would understand if they chose to tell her. "And besides, she's sparked with our sparklings so she can't just leave us. We won't let her."

"Right." His servos subconsciously drifted over her sparkchamber where their sparklings resided feeling a tiny thrumming in response. A wide grin forced its' way onto his mouth components as he hummed a lullaby that he had heard Ratchet use with Lily when she was a sparkling.

In response the little sparks pulsed, the sensation rousing their danniluk from recharge. Her optics flickered on as she gave a soft groan of discomfort and tiredness. "Sides cut it out." She admonished him tiredly. "It's making me want to purge and there's nothing left in my tanks for me to expel."

"Sorry sweetspark." He kissed her helm softly as a way of apologizing. Now that she was awake he was sure to keep any of his more troubling thoughts to himself so as not to stress her. "Do you want some warm low grade?"

Her tanks grumbled in response. "Want? No. Need? Yes." Was her clipped response.

Sunny got up from the berth and snorted. "Cranky much femme?"

"You try being sick every day for almost two weeks only for it to get worse!" She snapped irritably. **{Now go and get me my energon!}**

Sunny gave her a surprised look, obviously not expecting the sheer vehemence that she had uttered that command with, and hurriedly left to get her energon for her. **'Careful with her Sides...she's hit the mood swing phase already.'**

Oh he could tell...because as soon as Sunny was out the door she turned to him and buried her face into his chassis. Oh so now she was wanting to cuddle? He hesitantly cuddled her back while they waited for Sunny to return with her energon. She seemed content to just lay there and bask in his warmth, and he was equally content to bask in her presence.

At least he thought that she was content...a sudden pressure on his crotchplate jolted him out of that contented silence. He looked down at where her small servo was fondling his covered interface rod then at her threatening expression, and he gulped as he got the unspoken demand. Take your armor off or else. He hesitated just a klik too long because the next thing he knew she had lunged at him pinning him down on his back with surprising force. **'Sunny help!'**

Sunny's exasperated voice lilted back over the bond at the same time that she tore his armor off from the bottom up. **'What is it now Sides?'**

**'Lily's trying to be the mech Sunny! She's trying to be the mech!'** He screeched over the bond as she shed her armor and pounced on him. An audible choking sound left his mouth components when she slid herself down onto his interface rod.

**'What are you even talking about Sides? How is she trying to be the mech?'**

**'She's fragging me!'** He half yelled half moaned over the bond. His servos clutched at her hips as she started thrusting herself up and down over his rod. Primus! Never had he been with a femme that was so forceful and domineering! It was as hot as it was frightening!

He literally felt Sunny choking over the bond but whatever he was saying was drowned out by what Lily was doing to him.

She had picked up the motions of riding him very quickly despite it being her first time being in any sort of control...and she was raking her digits down over the most sensitive places on his protoform with each thrust of her hips.

Her warm slick lubricated walls squeezed him making him moan as she knowingly contracted them around him to heighten his pleasure...he hadn't even known that she knew how to do that! He clutched at her hips forcing her to move faster over him. At this point he was making so much noise that it would be a surprise if Bluestreak didn't hear them next door! And that was not saying anything about the femme that was screaming at the top of her vocaliser above him.

She suddenly yanked him up so that they were chassis to chassis while she rode him. Her lips were suddenly slammed on his as her glossa forced its' way into his oral cavity, her pace only quickening as another pleased moan escaped both of them.

They were so into it that neither of them paid Sunny any attention when he stumbled back into the room and gaped at them.

She started gyrating her hips forward and in a circle as she forcefully slammed him down into the berth and plastered their chassis together. Her mouth kept attacking his as the speed of her hips sped up, internal walls quivering in pre overload.

Another loud moan escaped him as a digit started working at her external node eliciting a soft mewl from her. She quivered around him tightening like a vice as she broke free and screamed out her overload for the whole base to hear.

Her walls clamped down on him and fluctuated around his rod ripping his own overload from him before he could stop himself. He emptied himself into her with a loud shout of her designation, hips jerking wildly into her as he emptied himself inside of her warm port.

They both came down together, or more like he slumped down in satisfaction... Lily however...did not. All she did was turn and stalk in Sunny's direction. "Take your armor off!" She snapped in a tone that was just as demanding as it had been when she had ordered him to get her energon earlier.

He turned and watched as she crowded Sunny's much larger frame into the nearest wall, smirking when his twin looked at her like he was both incredibly turned on and frightened at the same time.

"SUNNY!" Lily screeched when he just stood there doing nothing.

In response Sunny scrambled to drop his armor before she became violent, which she looked like she might if he didn't listen.

As soon as his twin was completely naked she grabbed his arm and flung him onto the floor like a rag doll, her frame appearing on top of him in a flash! With as much tenacity as she had shown him, she attacked Sunny with equal vigor.

He would say for years to come that he had never heard his twin scream that loud...well not very often. One thing that he did know for sure was that she was the first femme that had ever dominated either of them.

And she had successfully diverted their attention from what had been bothering them earlier! He guessed that they would just have to tell her later when she was too tired from fragging them to get upset!

But as she drove Sunny into the floor he had to wonder if she would ever get tired?

He leaned his helm onto his servo and proceeded to just watch. She had to tire sometime right?

Was this even a side effect of being sparked? Or was this just Lily's dissatisfaction with their lack of attention to her in the berth lately?

Oh Primus! What if she actually got worse the further along she got? What if this wasn't even as bad as it was going to get?

He got a partial answer when she forced both her and Sunny into overload...and turned on him again with that same predatory look.

"Oh Sidesssss!" She sang out dangerously.

His optics widened... Primus have mercy on them!

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Sorry if the sparkling bit was a little sudden but...I just found out that I am actually expecting. I have to say that it freaks me out! Never did I ever think that I would be knocked up! Anyways R&amp;R!<p> 


	48. Chapter 48

Uhhhhh I feel like crap! Being preggers is a real b****! Can't eat and all I wanna do is sleep! But on a brighter note my best friend is going to most of my appointments with me! It's a lot better than having to go alone with my ex who is the dad. Anyways enough about me and my life! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>As she purged into a near by trash bin noisily she cursed her intended mates with everything in her! Every spray of bright blue energon that forced its' way up her throat cables was accompanied by thoughts of how to make them suffer for doing this to her! It didn't even matter that they were hovering near by protectively!<p>

Oooohhh how she wanted to just go over there and choke them both until they fell into stasis! Or maybe channel every bit of discomfort and pain that she was feeling into them to see how they liked it!

Her back arched as another spray of energon came shooting out of her mouth with a disgusting retching sound that was only made to sound worse by the screeching of her fuel tanks. She moaned and dropped her helm onto the edge of the bin as energon tears fell from her optics from the intensity of her purging. Life sucked so bad right now...

Gentle servos started rubbing her sore back struts as Sunny came around with a damp cleaning rag and began to clean her face off. "You okay baby?" He asked quietly while he worked on ridding her of all of the purge covering her face.

A flash of irritation shot through her making her snap angrily! "Do I look ok!?" The caresses on her back struts faltered slightly due to her attitude and anger, but a sharp growl from her had Sides starting back up again. "I can't refuel at all! My tanks hurt! My sparkchamber hurts! And I keep purging all over the place! So let me ask you one more time if I look ok?!"

Instead of wincing and looking away from her blatant challenge Sunny just ignored her attitude and continued working on cleaning her. It almost made her want to purge again when these two acted all patient and understanding to her! No it made her want to just choke them! Yes preferably choking them would work!

"We're sorry that we made you sick sweetspark." Sides apologized before his tone became more upbeat. "But the results of being sick are sparklings! Isn't that great?"

She glared at him, though on the inside she was silently agreeing that if she had to be sick like this being sparked was the only reason that she would accept as the cause. And she was looking forward to seeing her little ones! But the sickness she could definitely do without!

It really wasn't fair you know? She had to go through the purging and the nausea and pain, and these two AKA the ones that had done this to her got to stand around feeling completely normal and fine! Why couldn't the creator get the all day sickness? Yes she said all day because it was not just in the morning! It was all day long! Whenever she refueled of even smelled energon she purged! Even the warm low grade sometimes killed her!

The killer was that she still needed it for the growing sparks in her sparkchamber, so she had to take it when it was offered to her no matter how badly she purged afterwards. Usually by the second cube she could sip it and hold it down though...yay for her!

Sunny finished cleaning her face of all of the unprocessed energon coating it and picked her up to place her on the berth. He retrieved another cube of low grade from his subspace and held it out to her to take. When she did not immediately take it for fear of it making her purge again he gave her a stern look. "Baby take the energon. I know that it makes you sick but the sparklings need as much energon to strengthen themselves as they can get. You need it too to stay healthy."

The cube was firmly shoved into her servos where she proceeded to cringe and glare at the sloshing blue energon contained within. Her tanks rumbled once making her gag softly as the ever present need to purge her tanks reared its' ugly head again.

"Sip it slowly."

She shot Sunny a harsh glare. "Don't tell me what to do!" She snapped angrily.

He calmly cupped her servos around the cube despite the warning look she gave him and tilted it up at her mouth components. "Drink it."

"No! I don't want it!" At the last astrosecond she turned and flopped down onto the berth on her side causing the cube that had been propped against her face to spill all over the berth. A trill of pleasure escaped her when the energon splattered all over the place! At least it was not in her tanks making her sick!

There was an irritated growl from Sunny that let her know that in no way was he pleased about what she had just done. "Baby what the slag did you do that for? You are going to refuel even if you don't like it! We can always get you more energon!"

She hissed softly curling even further in on herself to try and ward off anymore nausea, that and to let both of them know that she was not in the mood for them. All that she could focus on was the unease in her tanks that while not as bad as it had been before she purged, was still enough to unsettle her. In no way was she going to drink her energon until it stopped.

At least she promised herself that she would not, but these two never understood her boundaries when it came to her own wellbeing! And this moment was no different because one astrosecond she was laying comfortably on the berth, and the next Sides was delicately yanking her up so that he could pin her arms against her sides, while Sunny came at her with another cube of warm low grade.

So she did what any sparked femme would do...she started crying. Really she blamed it on the hormones that accompanied being sparked because that was what it was, but whatever it was got them to stop trying to force energon down her throat. In fact it got them to change their demeanors in less than an astrosecond.

Sunny immediately placed the cube down so that he could join Sides in enveloping her in a hug. Unlike Sides however he just held her whereas the red twin cooed all kinds of soft spoken words into her audio receptor. He just held her and rumbled his engine lowly to calm her.

A soft hiccup escaped her vocaliser as she slowly curled into him comfortably, listening to the soft yet strong rumbling of his engine. In return she gently revved her's back conveying her comfort and pleasure to him, yet what she did not expect was a soft thrumming from inside of her sparkchamber. Jerking back she looked down at her chassis and rumbled her engine again slightly louder this time, and the results were a more pronounced fluttering in her chamber.

"What are you doing sweetspark?"

She jolted in surprise, turning to look at her red lover with wide optics. For a moment she had almost forgotten that the two of them were in there with her! She tilted her helm at him before an idea sparked in her processor! Maybe they could feel the thrumming themselves!

With a soft happy trill she took one of their servos in each of her's before bringing them to her sparkchamber, once they were firmly pressed against the smooth metal she revved her engine again and waited... The response from within was quicker this time, a stronger pulse of the little sparks within.

Both mechs straightened up in what she depicted as surprise. "Was that the sparklings?" Sunny asked in wonder.

"Mm hmm! They like the sound of my engine!"

Sides stared at her unmoving for what must have been three kliks, until it started weirding her out that he just sat there completely still while she and Sunny got increasingly creeped out by it. His side of the bond was even completely quiet which only served to make her more nervous. But as she opened her mouth to say something to him he suddenly lunged for her.

She let out a startled squeak as his large chassis was pressed directly over her sparkchamber, and she didn't have to wonder what the slag he was doing for not even half an astrosecond later he was loudly rumbling his engines. Now she knew that he had good intentions and that he was just excited that he felt the sparklings for the first time, but the rumbling was doing nothing good for her tanks. And it was too loud so the sparklings were not responding to it. "Sides cut it out!"

"Aww they're not moving for me!" He pouted.

"Because your engine is too loud! They like the soft rumbling sound more than the loud angry revving!" She attempted to push at him to expel him from her space but he would not budge.

"Ok softer! Got it!"

She hated it when he ignored her! But she had no spark to say anything about it when he toned down the angry revving of his engine into a soft barely there hum. The sparklings stirred in response though it seemed more sluggish than before.

That didn't seem to matter to Sides because he grinned all the same like the best thing ever had happened to him. He leaned down and pressed his helm against her chassis while wearing a boyish grin. "Hello sparklings one and two! You can call me daddy! I know that you might be wondering why I told you to call me by a human term, and that's because you have two opilucks! See me and opiluck Sunny are split spark twins and that means that we dually impregnate! So I decided to have you call me daddy to make it easier for you to differentiate between us!"

"Sides...I don't think they can understand you at all yet." She murmured quietly while she gently patted his helm. It was very cute to see him talking to them like this even if having his helm pressed against her sensitive chassis was making her run a high charge.

"I know that!" He suddenly grinned up at her before sitting up straight. "I want them to recognize my voice! It said on the internet that human babies better recognize voices that they are exposed to in the womb! I figured that it was worth trying with our sparklings!"

She felt her optic ridges shoot up in surprise. "You were looking things like that up?"

Sides shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea. Sunny thought so too!"

Her helm slowly swiveled in Sunny's direction to see him looking somewhat embarrassed. "You did it too?"

"Yeah. I even asked Ratchet about what kind of behavior would be beneficial to the sparklings. He said that it was a good idea to talk to them daily...and he also said that it was a good idea to be physically attentive to you."

She blushed as she caught the more suggestive undercurrent that she could sense in his words. He might be meaning attentive in other ways, but the main one he hinted at was definitely...that. And well they were most definitely being attentive to those needs...quite thoroughly. "Stress reliever." She agreed in a quiet voice.

"Yeah." He rumbled suggestively while leering at her with darkened optics. "Stress reliever."

He pulled her chassis to chassis with him and cupped her aft in his large servos making her purr happily in response. She leaned in to kiss him only to freeze just short when a sharp pain tore through her sparkchamber. The suddenness and intensity of it made her jerk back, servos flying to her sparkchamber as a yelp of pain escaped her.

She knew that the sparklings sparks were now matured enough to separate and sink into her gestation chamber, but she was not expecting such sharp pain to accompany it. She laid back down on the berth and clutched at her sparkchamber as her mechs proceeded to freak out, but when Sides tried to yank her up from the berth she swatted at him uttering a weak, "Don't touch me!"

"What the pit is happening?" Sides panicked. "Nevermind that! I'll comm Ratchet!"

Her spark lurched sending the sensation of being torn apart through her chassis. Another cry escaped her vocaliser as she arched slightly off of the berth and gritted her denta. It felt like her spark was ripping itself apart!

Sunny clutched her servo in his wincing as he channeled some of her pain through the bond.

She sighed as the pain lessened considerably making it more bearable for her. It still felt like she was being ripped apart but it was more muted...

_**:Sweetling Sideswipe just commed me! What's going on?:**_

_**:Sparklings are separating from my spark.:**_

_**:Why the frag didn't you have them bring you to the med bay?! Nevermind that! I'll be at the twin's quarters in two kliks!:**_

_**:Kay.:** _She turned her attention back to the two mechs looming over her worriedly. Sides had started channeling the pain on his end so it was much better than it had been. Later she would have to thank them for that when her sparklings were not ripping away from her spark.

The sound of pedes rushing down the hallway outside of the twins' room sounded out just before her opiluck rushed in. "Outta the way Sunstreaker!" He roughly pushed Sunny aside so that he had a clear view of her. "Open your sparkchamber for me please."

She immediately did as he requested and slid her chest plates open so that her opiluck could peer into her sparkchamber.

"They're almost separated sweetling. Just one more surge should do it."

Heavy vents rattled her frame as said surge started up almost immediately after he had uttered that sentence. A soft whimper of barely concealed pain escaped her as the ripping sensation started up all over again, only more intense this time. Then she literally felt the actual rip tear through her making her actually cry out louder than previously as the most intense pain so far racked her frame.

Every joint locked up in response to the agonizing pain coursing through her, it was brief lasting only several astroseconds perhaps, but her frame stayed locked up tight for nearly twice as long.

And then the most amazing sensation hit her... She could feel the tiny split spark making its' way into her gestation chamber, she could feel them wriggling though they had no solid form yet. A heavy exhausted breath escaped her in response. Her entire frame just slumped down against the berth in exhaustion...

"Well that was certainly faster than I was expecting." Her opi mused quietly. "You must be further along than I was anticipating, because the sparks do not normally separate until mid way through the second month."

"Is she okay?" Sides peeked over her opi's shoulder at her.

"She's fine." Opi muttered tersely. "She just needs energon and rest for today. No strenuous activity." He looked pointedly at all of them at the last bit.

A sheepish grin spread across her lips...yeah everybot on base had heard about them by now. "I have no problems following that advice opi." In fact she felt like she might just fall into recharge right now! She was absolutely exhausted!

"Good. If you need me for anything do not hesitate to call for me...and do not be difficult about refueling!"

She gave him a thumbs up. "Can do."

Opi gave her and the twins one last stern look before he turned and stomped his way out of the room.

Before the doors had even slid shut both mechs were on the berth fussing over her while Sunny resumed trying to get her to refuel again, and Sides rubbed at her gestation chamber.

This time she relented and took the offered energon without complaint, better yet when she drank it she did not immediately want to purge. She was absolutely starved, and the little sparks in her gestation chamber pulsed happily in response.

All three of them cuddled up on the berth once she was finished. Her recharge protocols took over almost instantly pulling her into a deep recharge.

* * *

><p>(Sunny's POV)<p>

The next few days went by in a blur for him between taking care of Red and trying to find the right time to tell her everything about their relationship. It was a constant whirlwind of activity with no seeming end in sight, from fighting her to make her refuel, to sating her over zealous high charges daily, to trying to find time between all of that before she fell into recharge. And so far they had not yet found a time to tell her.

Sides was stressing over it constantly though he hid it from her well. But as the two of them made their way back to base from their patrol with Hot Rod something just felt off. Their mate's side of the bond had gone quiet several hours ago, though it was not the quiet that came with a sparkmate being offlined, they could still feel her just not as much as they liked to.

They pulled into the hangar and shifted back to bi pedal mode, and without giving Hot Rod a second look they took off in search of their sparkmate.

He sensed her spark signature coming from the rec room and immediately headed in that direction. That room was beginning to feel more and more cursed to him seeing as how one bad thing after another happened to their femme in there.

They sped up their pace to get there faster, practically sprinting into the room where their sparkmate was. Nobot else was present in the room save for her, and she paid them no mind when they entered instead opting to stare at the wall opposite of the door.

Together they made their way over to the table she was sitting at, taking a seat on either side of her. She still did not respond to them and that was when he noticed that there were fresh tracks of energon tears spilling from her optics. He stiffened as the thought that somebot had hurt her instantly put him on the defensive. "Baby what's wrong? Did somebot hurt you?"

She slowly turned her helm to face him with a haunted look residing in her optics saying nothing at all in response. Those gold optics just stared at him with the most hurt look residing there that he had ever seen. She said nothing at all before downing the rest of her energon cube and standing to make her way out of the room.

He jumped up at the same time that Sides did, though his brother was quicker to speak out. "Sweetspark what's wrong with you?"

Her entire frame froze just inside the rec room door...and she turned to them with fresh energon tears welling up in her optics. "Why don't you tell me when you feel like it?" Was all she said in a soft pained tone before she left them standing there completely confused.

What the pit had that been all about?

For a moment they just stood there dumbfounded by what had just transpired, but when she clamped down on the bond so tightly that they could not sense her at all it jolted them out of their stupification. Without any thought he took off out the door in the direction that she had taken. Something was wrong! Something was very wrong! They had to find her and figure out what was wrong with her!

She was nowhere to be found! It was like she had just disappeared into thin air!

They made their way to their room in the hopes that she had gone there, but when the doors opened complete shock tore at their shared spark. Everything that was their mate's was gone from the room! Her crafting objects, games! Everything was gone!

Spark stuttering wildly in fear and apprehension he turned and rushed back out the door. Ratchet had to know where she was! He had to know what was going on!

They raced through the hallways towards the med bay without once stopping for any reason. Absolute panic ate away at both of them due to the unknown whereabouts of their sparkmate!

Normally the med bay was a place that they feared to tread, but on this day they just rushed in startling Ratchet and First Aid. The former assumed an irritated stance and glared at them. "Well? What are the two of you doing in here now?"

"Red's acting weird Hatchet! She even moved all of her things out of our quarters! She was fine this morning!"

"First Aid let us have some privacy for a few moments." Ratchet waited until his former student slipped from the room before taking a seat on his stool. He sighed and rubbed at his face plates tiredly. "Lilydancer came to me several hours ago to tell me that she was moving back into our quarters. I do not know why she wants to do this because she did not give me any reason. Something must have happened for she was quite upset."

"So you don't know what happened?" He pressed despondently. That was just great!

"No I do not. The bond was quite strained and pained on her part but I was unable to find out why because she blocked me out almost completely. All I know is that she was insistent on spending some time away from you two, that and she seemed skittish with me as well."

"So she's at your quarters? Could we go and talk to her?"

"If you want to try it be my guest Sideswipe. My advice is not to strain her in any way if it can be helped."

"Ok Ratchet. Do you have a security override code for us?" He could not believe that this was happening! Everything had been good between them until today! Something must have happened to change all of this! Somebot had to have said or done something to her!

"The override code is 9007863245. Be careful with her."

"We will." With that they turned and left the CMO to his work, practically rushing from the room in their haste to get to their sparked femme.

The hallway was nothing but a blur to him as they raced to Ratchet's quarters. His thoughts were no better seeing as how they were nothing but a whirlwind of worry and uncertainty. As they turned the corner to the hallway that contained Ratchet's room he almost ran into the last femme that he wanted to see. Limelight.

Not thinking anything of it he just pushed passed her and continued on, only briefly taking in the small smirk on her lips as they ran by.

He skidded to a stop outside of the CMO's quarters and banged on the door before he had even regulated his vent cycles. They waited, panting and out of breath for her to answer. But she didn't answer, not that he had expected her to.

A frustrated growl erupted from his mouth as he harshly punched the override code into the door and waited impatiently for it to open. It did so with a hiss prompting him to force his way in before it had even fully opened.

Sides stumbled into the empty living room at the same time that he deduced that she must be in the berthroom. He threw his twin a worried look before marching in that direction with every intention of figuring out what had happened in their absence.

It just made no sense! Earlier this morning they had been blissfully happy! Red had woken them up from recharge with an abundance of kisses and more intimate affections, affections that they had reciprocated in full before being forced to leave for patrol. She had sent them off with a warm smile and a bond overfilled with love!

And then not even an hour after they had left it had gone silent! Nothing but a brief flash of surprise and worry on her part to warn them that something was off, but even that had not immediately sent up red flags in his processor. Sometimes femmes just needed their quiet time and it was not unheard of for Red to close the bond off when she was needing time to think in silence.

He vented heavily when they stopped outside of the door where her signal was resonating from, pressing his forehelm against it he banged on it firmly. "Red open the door! Sides and I want to know what is going on with you! Please baby open the door for us!"

Dead silence greeted him from the other side of the door. Not even the sound of shifting reached his audio receptors. It did more than just unsettle him. It downright terrified him. The one thing that he feared more than anything was losing her or his twin...and he felt like that was happening right now. He wouldn't be able to bear losing her.

"Please baby...just talk to us. If not for us then for the sparklings. They need their mech creators, and we...we need you." The plea sounded completely desperate and sparkbroken but that was every bit of what he was feeling eating away at his spark. The hopelessness that came with the very notion of her pulling away from them. It felt like his spark was being weighed down so heavily that he could not even think about digging himself out from under the pain.

A soft accusing voice came drifting out of the otherwise quiet room. "You lied to me."

Lied to her? Sides just cocked his helm to the side and shook his helm when he looked at him, obviously not knowing what she was talking about. He turned back to the door and pressed his face against it tiredly. "About what baby? We don't understand what you are talking about."

"Yes you do!"

The sharp accusing tone had him wanting to snap back in surprise, but he refrained, frame sliding down into a kneeling position. "I don't baby. You were perfectly happy this morning when we left."

"Yes I was...because you were lying to me!" She let out a soft sob, voice dripping with hurt.

There it was again! The accusation that they were lying to her! What was it all abou-!

Sides jolted at the same time that he did taking an identical position beside him and pressing his audio receptor against the door. "Sweetspark? Lily?"

There was dead silence for a moment. "I told you not to call me that. Only Moondancer can call me that."

An encompassing heaviness suddenly slammed down on his spark at those angry hurt filled words. Whoever had told her...was going to fragging die! After they explained why and how everything had happened! That was if she let them try...

He jumped up and input the override code into the door console with shaky digits. Their entire past, present, and future was flashing before his optics continuously along with the threat of it all coming to an end. Logically he knew that she could not leave them, but he wanted her to be happy while she was with them.

As the door slid open revealing her holoform perched atop Ratchet's berth, those familiar sage green optics staring at them guardedly, his spark gave another pained pulse. She looked exactly as she had before the change had occurred, from the long red hair and pale creamy skin. He briefly took in the fact that her alt was nowhere to be seen, and he figured that she must have used the ability to shrink down and project a holoform skin over her actual frame.

The only thing that was somewhat different was a small noticable bump in her abdomen. The brief question of; 'Would she have looked like that if she had stayed as she was before?' passed through his processor. It was instantly washed away when the door slid shut after them leaving both of them facing her in complete tense silence.

After several moments of silence he opened his mouth and spat angrily, "who told you? And how much do you know?"

She seemed to stiffen as her optics flashed a dangerous blue just like they always did when she was angry. "To the first question; none of your business." She gritted out derisively. "And to the second...everything. As soon as the first truth came forward it was like whatever was blocking my memories from me just disappeared. Thinking about it now, it was probably me blocking them from my consciousness. They were not pretty by any means..."

"Why didn't you just say something? Do you know how confusing this all is? It's like I'm two different people!" An enraged look overcame her features, angry tears welling up in her optics and spilling down her cheeks. She shook, servos drifting down to rest gently on her extended abdomen in a comforting motion. "So many things would have made sense if you had just been honest with me from the beginning! What?! Did you think that not telling me would make the past disappear or something?" She jumped up and gathered energy into her servos as if to strike out at them.

"It doesn't work like that!" She shrieked at an audio splitting decibel. "You lied to me! You just wanted a mate who wasn't as tainted as I was!"

"No babe it wasn't like that!" He stepped towards the berth cautiously with his servos held up in a placating motion.

"The pit it wasn't! How am I supposed to look at myself in this body and see me?! Nothing's the same! I'm not the same!"

"You are the same to us Red. It doesn't matter what form you are in, you'll always be our sparkmate."

She backed away from him and started rambling. "I hate her fragging guts but at least she was honest with me! At least she told the truth even if it was only to hurt me! You couldn't even be honest with me! Was it because you were happier with what I've become now?"

He reached out for her only to jerk back when she slapped his servo away. Her refusal to let him touch her hurt him more than he would like to admit. "Babe calm down."

When her optics met his again there was such a look of pain and anguish in them that even with the bond dulled he could tell that it was completely encompassing her spark. A trail of never-ending tears trailed down her cheeks in large rivulets and her form was shuddering with repressed sobs. "Just leave me alone."

Sides moved around to the side of the berth and knelt down so that he was more on her level. "We can't do that Lil and you know it. You need us."

"I needed you before and you wanted to let me live a lie for your own benefit!"

Both of them winced from the sheer vehemence those words were spoken with, but in him in evoked more than just pain, it ignited his anger. They were mates! How dare she accuse them of ever doing something for any reason other than for her own good?!

Sides' helm snapped in his direction when an angry snarl escaped him. "Sunny just calm down! Both of you need to calm down!" His twin put a protective servo in front of her to shield her from him.

As if he would ever put a servo on her even in anger! Knocking some sense into her verbally was another story entirely. "We would never! How could you even think that for even an astrosecond!? Everything that we do is for your own good!"

Her optics locked on him angrily. "My own good? Was it for my own good to let these memories torment me? Did you think for one moment that it might make it easier to just know? Or did you think for a second that I had the right to know who and what I was? Did you even think about how I would feel after remembering?!" She seemed to slump down and simultaneously puff herself up to make herself look bigger, an odd combination really. "I feel like shit!"

"Why? Why do you feel like that?" Sides asked gently. Always the mediator in their fights.

"Why do I feel like shit?!" She asked incredulously. "I feel like shit because the memories of this life are so much better than the ones I'm used to! I feel like shit because one moment I'm happy and carefree, and the next reality bitch slaps me across the face by rubbing in every horrifying memory of MY life! I can't pretend to be this...Lilydancer person! She's nothing but a lie! Those memories are not mine!"

"Yes they are." He may not understand what she was feeling, but he did know that both parts of her were real. Lilydancer and Lilah were the same femme, the same spark just obscurred from one another for a time. Both of their memories belonged to both of them, because they were the same femme even if it did not seem like it to her.

"No they aren't. I never grew up safe and protected!" She practically hissed at him.

"They are too. When your body changed into that of a sparkling we promised to raise you with love. For that reason we kept the past from you because we did not want those memories to torment you. We hoped that for a time you would be able to live a normal life! So forgive us for wanting what we thought was best for you!"

"Who the pit gave you permission to decide what was best for me?!"

"I'm your mate! I decide what's best for you!" He raised his own voice back as his temper flared.

"Ratchet said not to strain her Sunny!" Sides snapped as he too started to lose his temper, only at him not their sparkmate.

"She's not listening!"

"Did you expect her to react any other way to this?! She's hurting and you're yelling at her!"

"Well she's hurting me because she won't let me make her pain stop! She won't understand why!"

His twin reached through their bond and forcefully quelled his anger as much as he could. "Calm down. Do you want to scare the sparklings?"

"No. I don't want to scare or hurt her or them." Now that he was under a forced calm he just felt spent. Tired. All he wanted was for her to understand why they had done what they had done. For her own good, for her happiness. Did she not know that they had suffered by keeping everything from her? It had hurt them both from the beginning to betray her trust even if it was what they thought was right.

He took several deep vents to calm himself more before reaching out and gently wrapping his digits around her loosely. It went no farther then him gently touching her while they stared each other down. "I'm sorry babe. I should not have lost my temper with you."

"You didn't tell me." She whispered despondently.

"We thought that it would be better for you at the time...and we were actually planning on telling you soon. It was just that no time seemed like a good time to tell you." The soft swell of her abdomen met his pointer digit when he engulfed her completely in his servo, the small pulses of energy serving to soothe him more. No matter how angry he was at her she was his mate, and she was carrying his sparklings and that meant that he would never hurt her.

"I just...need some time to sort everything out in my head."

"You can't stay away from us Red. The sparklings need our presence to feel comfortable...and it helps soothe your discomfort and pain. Come back with us."

Her servos drifted down over her abdomen almost like she had momentarily forgotten about the sparklings contained within her. No more than tiny baby sparks with only the barest of protoforms, if they were any larger she would be unable to use this holoform technique.

Without saying a word to either of them she disabled her holoform skin leaving her condensed frame visible, it seemed to inflate sending parts floating out from her frame as they folded back into their larger shapes. It reminded him of that one cartoon that Sides had made him watch where the guy could just shrink or make himself bigger, just with magic physic defying metal plates instead.

Her frame stretched out until she sat before them in her Cybertronian form completely armored and looking no different than she had that morning.

She sat there with her helm slightly bowed before hesitantly bringing her servos up in front of her and bending them experimentally. A heavy almost nervous sounding vent escaped her as she tapped at her arms, legs, chassis, and even going so far as to cup her own face plates.

It had to be confusing and even frightening to be of one processor one day only to be of two the next. The memories were probably overlapping each other forcing her to put them in the proper order and place, an endeavor that both he and Sides would be more than happy to help her with. Sparkmerging would ensure that she remembered everything clearly and in proper order. But if she was still angry at them it may be the last thing she would want to do.

When her servos drifted down over her gestation chamber they paused there almost curiously. "It feels weird...like I can feel them much more than I used to."

"Well you are made of metal now." Sides pointed out in a tone that was a pitiful attempt at humor.

"I know." She whispered unmoving. Another heavy vent escaped her. "I still want some time to myself...just a day or two."

Both he and Sides went to protest when she looked up with the most lost look on her face that he had ever seen before. "Please? You can use this time to get back at your old girlfriend for telling me."

"Oh I plan to..." He growled threateningly. Limelight was going to get it for stressing their sparkmate unduly at this point in her gestation, and for telling her things that she had no right to. "But that doesn't mean that I'm letting this happen. You will have plenty of time to yourself while we run patrol for the next few days, but you will stay in our quarters with us."

"Sunny I sai-"

"It doesn't matter what you said. At this stage in your gestation you need to have extended contact with us, and if you need confirmation on that you can ask Ratchet. And if that's not good enough you can talk to Optimus because he cut down our patrol time so that we could be with you more."

"One day is not going to hurt!" Red shot back heatedly.

"We're not going to find out! Sides and I are going to take you back to our room babe, then we are going to come back and get all of your things. This is non negotiable." At the end of his speech he held a servo out for her, waiting patiently for her to take it. He would carry her if he had to.

"You wouldn't be ordering me around if I didn't remember Sunny." She quipped angrily. "Then again I didn't even remember what kind of bond we had this morning."

He did not falter or relent like her words had been meant to make him do. "I already apologized for that...and I will do it again later on. After. You. Are. Back. In. Our. Quarters."

With an angry huff she pushed his servo aside and hopped down from the berth stiffly. She seemed to be keeping equal space between both of them when they started leading her from the room.

They walked in silence the entire way, with her brushing off every attempt at physical contact they made. It irritated him but he could not really fault her for the pain and hurt she was feeling. To her it must seem like her entire world was spinning around in an incomprehensible blur.

That was why he was silent instead of questioning her on her behavior, because he really did not need to ask such pointless questions.

The three of them arrived at their room and together Sides and him led her inside.

She immediately sat down on the couch servos coming up to play with her long translucent wires. Her door wings twitched seeming to startle her briefly from the way her frame slightly tensed, but then it relaxed...too much.

He had never seen her look so...just there. Usually she was angry or sad, lashing out or crying. But here she was now just sitting there quietly while she played with her frame like she did not know it when he knew full well that she did and that the memories were just mixed up.

Before they left to retrieve her things he made his way over to her to press a kiss to her helm. This contact she did not shrug off, though she gave no outward reaction to it. "We'll be back soon Red. Relax and don't go anywhere until we get back okay?"

"Just go."

He squeezed her shoulders before releasing her to move out the door with Sides on his left. They had a lot to see to...first and foremost being retrieving their mate's belongings. Then they had to deal with Limelight once and for all.

Because nobot messed with their sparked mate and got away with it! Soon Limelight would find that she had bitten off more than she could chew.

A feral grin spread across his face.

Revenge. That femme was going to regret what she had done. One way or another.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R! Sorry for the late update but I have been sleeping a lot lately so I have not had as much time to type. It was bothering me a lot so I stayed up extra late to type this up! I hope that it was good! Oh and the vote is tied so we need a tie breaker! Come one people one more vote! Anyways let me know what you thought!<p> 


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